At Charnwood Primary Academy, writing is a crucial part of our curriculum. All children from Foundation Stage to Year 6 are provided with many opportunities to develop and apply their writing skills across the curriculum. We follow the National Curriculum and the EYFS framework, and the texts used by The Literacy Tree are used to inspire our units.
Our intention is for pupils to be able to plan, revise and evaluate their writing. To be able to do this effectively, pupils will focus on developing effective transcription and effective composition. They will also develop an awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. We also intend for pupils to leave school being able to use fluent, legible and speedy handwriting as well as being confident spellers.
The children are taught writing skills using ‘The Literacy Tree‘ as an inspiration for many of our units. We use the texts and the planning as a base as well as incorporating our own curriculum-based writing opportunities to embed knowledge from our broad and balanced curriculum. All of the grammar and punctuation elements of the National Curriculum are embedded in the writing process, so that it is learned in context. At Charnwood, we cover a range of fiction and non-fiction genres, covering the skills, which then lead up to children producing a piece of independent writing.
In EYFS and Year 1, spelling is taught through our Phonics program, Phonics Bug. Spelling rules taught from Year 2 – 6, using the framework for No Nonsense Spelling. Children are taught spelling rules from the National Curriculum for their year group, plus the common exception/statutory words for their year group(s).
Long Term Plan Y2-6: Spelling Long Term Plan PDF
Home learning for spelling is done using a half-termly spelling mat (in the reading diary and on the class webpage) which gives parents and children a list of words associated with their topic, spelling rules taught and curriculum words for their year group for that half term.
To help us to learn curriculum words, teachers at Charnwood use a variety of methods to suit different learning styles. Many come from the ‘Making Spellings Memorable’ document.