Writing
At All Hallows’ we believe that literacy and communication are key life skills that all children need. Through the English curriculum, we aim to help children to develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to be able to communicate effectively and creatively through both spoken and written language and to equip them with the skills to become lifelong learners. We want all our children to develop a love and enjoyment of literature through a rich variety of texts.
Our English curriculum at All Hallows’ is delivered using the National Curriculum English Document (2014). The Early Learning Goals are followed to ensure continuity and progression from the Early Years Foundation stage through to the National Curriculum. Recently we have implemented a new writing strategy, The Write Stuff. This is a whole school approach which brings clarity to the mechanics of the teaching of writing whilst improving vocabulary. It follows a method called ‘sentence stacking’. Sentence stacking refers to the fact that sentences are grouped together chronologically or organisationally to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can apply immediately to their writing. Lessons are based on a sentence model, broken into three separate chunks:
- Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence
- Model section – the teacher close models a sentence that outlines clear writing
features and techniques - Enable section – the children write their sentence following the model
It reinforces grammar through the use of of The Writing Rainbow which includes:
- The FANTASTICs which are an acronym that summarise the ideas of writing
- The Grammar Rainbow is a classroom tool that enables the teacher to drive key grammar messages.
- The BOOMTASTIC which helps children capture 10 ways of adding drama and poetic devices to writing in a vivid visual
Each unit of work finishes with an independent task, where the children use the skills they have learnt and apply it to their own independent piece of writing.
The Write Stuff - Information PowerPoint
Useful Websites