Writing
At St Mary’s we use the ‘Talk for Writing’ approach from Nursery to Year 2. The approach involves children learning stories and a variety of non-fiction texts off by heart, performing them, analysing them and using them as inspiration to create their own pieces of writing. Children gradually build up a bank of stories and non-fiction text types so that over time they can tell (and write) imaginative and exciting stories and confidently instruct, argue, discuss, explain, inform and persuade.
In EYFS and KS1, children are taught to spell phonetically in their daily Read Write Inc lessons and apply this learning to writing in many different contexts throughout each day. ‘Tricky words’ that cannot be spelled correctly using phonics are taught during Read Write Inc lessons too, and are given to the children to learn as part of their homework. In KS1, spellings are tested weekly.
Year 3 to Year 6 use Literacy Tree. In KS2, children investigate different spelling rules as part of their daily ‘Spelling Gym’ sessions. These sessions allow children to investigate spelling patterns and practise applying the rules that they discover. Children are given spellings to learn as part of their homework and these are tested weekly.
Handwriting is fully cursive and is taught at least 3 times per week in all year groups; teachers have high expectations of children’s handwriting and presentation at all times.