Writing at Haimo

In the Early Years children are taught that print has meaning and can have different purposes.

They develop their phonological awareness, so that they can:

- spot and suggest rhymes

- count or clap syllables in a word

- recognise words with the same initial sound, such as money and mother.

Children use some of their print and letter knowledge in their early writing. For example: writing a pretend shopping list that starts at the top of the page; writing ‘m’ for mummy. They learn to write some or all of their name and are taught to form some letters accurately.

Children engage in extended conversations about stories, learning new vocabulary.

Writing in KS1 and KS2 is taught through The Write Stuff approach by Jane Considine. This method allows pupils to improve their oracy and widen their vocabulary in every lesson, whilst deepening their understanding of writerly choices through the use of the shade’o’meter. Pupils love their writing lessons and can’t wait to show what they’ve learnt in their independent extended pieces at the end of each unit.  

All our writing is taught through the ‘writing rainbow’ which provides a lens for the writer to focus through in order to ensure all writing is effective and engaging for the reader, whilst meeting the intended purpose. 

The FANTASTIC Lenses: Feeling, Asking, Noticing, Touching, Action, Smelling, Tasting, Imagining, Checking 

You can find out more about The Write Stuff by visiting the website: https://www.thetrainingspace.co.uk/

Our writing lessons, alongside our reading lessons, are carefully structured to deliver the complete English National Curriculum. You can see this document here: Programme of study for English

We use No Nonsense spelling to structure our teaching of spellings. This series is designed to give children time to practice and opportunities to revisit spelling patterns in order to embed the learning. This is then reinforced with purposeful and meaningful activities.

The breakdown of the spelling curriculum can be viewed from appendix 1 of the National Curriculum: Spelling appendix

To see the English writing curriculum map, click here.

There is a wealth of amazing websites out there to support writing, both at home and at school. Below is a selection of some of our favourites.

Bitesize

Bitesize has videos, games, guides and lockdown lessons available. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zt3rkqt

Literacy Shed

Check out the range of ‘sheds’ in their ‘What’s New?’ section. 

https://www.literacyshed.com/

Vocabulary Ninja

There are some great resources here to help expand vocabulary. 

https://vocabularyninja.co.uk/

Grammar Monster

This website is a great place to go for quizzes and games.

https://www.grammar-monster.com/