Christ Church

CofE Primary School

Aspiring together through love

Translate
Search

Get in touch

Contact Details

Background Slideshow

A Research Based Approach

Our English curriculum at Christ Church is rooted in research-based approaches. The simple view of writing is considered when planning our units of work, ensuring that text generation, transcription and executive function skills are operational with working memory at the centre.

 

We follow EEF guidance to coherently plan our writing process throughout school, following the components of: planning, drafting, revising, editing and publishing.  Purpose and audiences for writing within each year group are well considered to ensure our writing curriculum is engaging and purposeful for all children.

 

 

EYFS

The fundamental starting point for developing our early writers in our EYFS is developing language, ensuring they hear, learn and use a variety of vocabulary.  The whole of our EYFS curriculum is built around the development of vocabulary through the use of a variety of quality texts and hands-on learning experiences.  A language-rich environments in Early Years is significant and we put emphasis on the interactions between adults and children.  Staff model speech effectively and have routines and processes for structuring talk and listening. Stories, singing and rhyme time are timetabled daily so that pupils become familiar with rich vocabulary and a wide range of language structures.

 

Throughout Nursery and Reception, the development of gross and fine motor skills, and hand-eye co-ordination are embedded throughout the curriculum through well planned and considered opportunities, for example, within role play experiences, teacher-set challenges, construction activities and creative crafts.  A range of mark making and writing stimuli are delivered to strengthen muscular strength and dexterity, including the use of dance in ‘Squiggle while you Wiggle’ lessons (learning gross motor movements to a piece of music) and fine muscle exercises in ‘Dough Disco’ sessions.   

 

During Reception, children write every day and learn letter formation through the Read Write Inc. phonics program (RWI), these are taught using a series of handwriting rhymes as they learn corresponding sounds within daily phonics lessons.  An emphasis on handwriting through our Penpals handwriting scheme is evident in handwriting lessons (see our Handwriting and Presentation Policy for more information).  Children become confident in rehearsing out loud what they want to say, before spelling the words using the graphemes and ‘tricky’ words they know.  Children’s composition (ideas, vocabulary, and grammar) is developed by drawing on their own experiences, talking about the stories they read and through a variety of engaging and structured activities throughout the day.  Within lessons, children experience modelled writing where letter formation and word structures are reinforced, and teachers articulate their thinking to compose writing step-by-step.

 

Throughout Nursery and Reception children can write each day during ‘COOL Time’ (Choosing Our Own Learning).  These opportunities help to develop children’s confidence and enjoyment of writing.  They also develop their gross and fine motor skills both indoors and outdoors during this time, enabling them to prepare their muscles for writing. Children in Early Years also participate in Drawing Club weekly where they engage in a task focused on a familiar story. This enables children to use all of the skills developed during phonics sessions - using them in an engaging way, developing confidence and imagination.

 

Year 1

Within Year 1, children build on our Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum developing their work in reading, spelling and language skills. We have a strong focus on the teaching of transcription (spelling and handwriting), making sure children achieve the foundational skills they need before progressing to more complex tasks. These skills are taught explicitly in handwriting lessons (Penpals), through the RWI program of study, and through our ‘Diving Into Books’ English lessons.  During these sessions, a high-quality engaging text is used to inspire and motivate children to write through role play, oracy and practical activities based on knowledge and understanding of the story. Further explicit teaching of foundational skills, including spelling and handwriting, sentence construction, control of grammar and use of vocabulary, allows all pupils to write effectively within these lessons.  A strong emphasis continues in Year 1 on spoken language, and children develop their oral vocabulary and language skills.  Staff continue to model speech effectively and have routines and processes for structuring talk and listening.

 

Years 2-6

Within Years 2 to 6, children receive daily writing lessons which are taught in mixed ability classes.  Our writing units are well considered and provide engaging opportunities for children to write for different purposes and audiences. A variety of immersive writing stimuli are used throughout school, varying from high-quality texts, visual literacy approaches, school visits or drama conventions, implemented to strengthen context and build imagination.  Units follow the EEF components of writing (above) and vocabulary, punctuation, grammar are taught explicitly within the writing cycle.  The process for transferring responsibility from adult to child is carefully planned for throughout writing units and includes the steps illustrated below (EEF, Improving Literacy in KS2).

 

Our whole school writing overview can be found here:

Top