Writing

 

Our Writing Principles

Children as writers:
At the GLA, our vision is for everyone to know that they are writers. We strive to break down barriers so that all children can experience the joy of seeing their ideas come to life. We promote, ‘say it loud, say it proud for all to hear!’

Adults as writers:
Writing provides an opportunity to use literary devices to be creative and imaginative. This is not just for children! Adults at the GLA are given time to develop their own skills as writers, whilst enjoying the process of writing with dedicated training time. 

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Photos of writing

 

Development of Oracy Skills:

• Imitate, innovate, independent application
  Our writing strategy encompasses the key principles from ‘Talk 4 Writing' developed by Pie Corbett and the ‘Drawing Club’ concept by Greg Bottrill to bring freedom and adventure to our Writing lessons and to bring the world of stories to life! Key to this, is the oral imitation of language - if you can't say a sentence, you won't be able to write it!

After this, children analyse and adapt the text before going on to write their own versions and adventures!

 

High Quality Texts to Support Writing:

• Chosen texts
  The texts which children study, as part of their writing cycle, span a variety of genres: historical fiction, classic fairy tales, humour, classic novels, poetry and the latest picks!

Texts have been chosen to:

• Provide the essential reference points for many writers (including works by classical authors)
• Give children access to wider knowledge from differing viewpoints
• Explore literary devices

 

Class Readers and Readers’ Theatre:
Through daily class reading and Readers’ Theatre lessons, children develop an understanding of authorial intent. Extracts from our chosen high-quality texts allow children to convey meaning through their voice, facial expressions and gestures, whilst experiencing the enjoyment that reading aloud can bring.

Supporting ideas:
We want to expand children‘s ideas and imagination, ensuring all children build a repertoire of ideas from differing authors. During innovation and independent application stages, children are able to ‘magpie‘ ideas, vocabulary, phrases and sentences from the text to support their own writing.

 

Combining Writing Skills:

• Explicit Grammar Teaching
  The GLA follow the National Curriculum and explicitly teach grammar skills from the designed programmes of study. Dedicated skills lessons ensure children are taught the grammar skills necessary to understand and apply literary devices. Grammar starters ensure children revisit the skills often.

 

Click here for the Y1-6 SPAG overview

 

Contextualised Grammar:
Through modelled texts, children are shown the grammar to be taught in context. Children will identify the grammar, before explicit grammar lessons teach the skill. Children will apply this knowledge through ‘short burst writing'. Dictation sentences provide children the opportunity to practise the grammar skills in a variety of different sentences.

 

Spelling Strategy:

Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) provides children with the phonetical knowledge required to recognise and write the many graphemes of the English language. The spelling strategy builds upon the need for oral rehearsal; children say the word, before breaking down into the single phonemes ready to spell. As children enter KS2, ELS strategies continue to be used, progressively building the knowledge of spelling patterns and the relationship between spelling and meaning.

 

Handwriting Strategy:

Children need to develop fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy handwriting. In doing so children can effectively communicate across the curriculum. The Nelson Handwriting scheme provides a progressive sequenced to formation of letters and joins and closely follows the ELS progression of letters.