English and Phonics

Phonics

To read about our phonics provision, please click here.

English

Writing

At Kingstone and Thruxton Primary school, we aim to nurture a sense of enjoyment in our children at expressing their thoughts and feelings through writing. We seek to develop their abilities to write for a wide range of purposes and audiences, using the written word to communicate ideas, views and feelings. Through looking at its patterns, structures and origins, children gain an understanding of how language works.

Writing Sessions

At Kingstone, children learn to write through the Write Stuff approach. This was developed by teacher and leading English consultant, Jane Considine. It is a fun, creative and rigorous approach to developing writers.  We start all pieces of writing by enjoying and sharing books and stories, placing a strong emphasis on a love of reading and books. Through regular reading, we aim for children to build up an extensive and rich vocabulary for use in their own writing and this word collecting is an integral part of the write stuff approach. Children “chot” (chat and jot) down their ideas in the initiate phase from stimulating resources, such as pictures, videos, music and drama. The teacher then models sentence scaffolds taken from the writing rainbow and pupils have a go at their own sentences, following a similar structure, taking the opportunity to deepen the moment which requires them to independently draw upon previously learnt skills and apply them to their writing during that particular chunk.

"The Write Stuff"  uses three essential components to support children in becoming great writers

The three zones of writing :

• IDEAS -  The FANTASTICs uses a child friendly acronym to represent the nine idea lenses through which children can craft their ideas.
  
  
• TOOLS - The GRAMMARISTICS. The grammar rules of our language system and an accessible way to target weaknesses in pupils grammatical and linguistic structures.
  
  
• TECHNIQUES - The BOOMTASTICs which helps children capture 10 ways of adding drama and poetic devices to their writing.

Regular opportunities are taken for children to practise their writing skills independently both in English and across the curriculum. At the end of each writing unit, children complete an independent write which is an opportunity for them to apply the new skills that they have learnt. Children produce final pieces to be proud of - often making these special by adding their own illustrations or art work. We aim to provide a balance of narrative, non-fiction and poetry throughout each term.

Communication

Communication is a two-way process. We communicate ‘outwards’ by speaking and writing, and we receive communication by listening and reading. In all our teaching and learning, we aim for our pupils to communicate orally to a high level, and so we place a lot of emphasis on all forms of speaking and listening, as well as reading and writing. In this increasingly information-based world, we also want our learners to evaluate information critically rather than believe everything they come across without questioning.

The document below outlines the writing genres that will be covered in each year group, each half term:

Writing Planning Overview