Writing

At Stone St Mary's CE Primary School, we believe that the skills and knowledge which are taught through English provide a solid starting point for all learning across the curriculum. Speaking and Listening links very closely to the development of reading and writing. We want to nurture learners who feel confident to apply their learning from English in every subject across the curriculum.

We use the Talk 4 Writing approach to promote discussion and the embedding of texts and create “life-long writers” who find joy in the writing process.

Writing intent 

Our children need to be able to write in a range of genres, focusing on being able to adapt their language and style of writing. Children will also need to be able to write for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences, using the grammar knowledge and spelling they are taught. Children should be exposed to a vocabulary-rich environment which allows them to make appropriate word choices which leads to their writing being interesting to read. 

Writing implementation

Writing at Stone St Mary's will always have a purpose with a variety of genres and text types, including poetry, being taught throughout the academic year. The teaching of writing is purposeful, robust and shows clear progression for all children. Teachers here focus on embedding the skills taught throughout the year in cross-curricular writing opportunities and ensure that most children are achieving the objectives 

Writing impact

The impact of our writing can be seen in the books they produce and the outcomes for all groups of pupils within the school. 

Pupils’ progress is measured through ongoing assessment and through three key assessment points during the year, as well as ongoing moderation both internally and externally. Learning is planned to address misconceptions and gaps in learning are identified by staff to ensure that the curriculum effectively meets the needs of all pupils.

By the end of our children's time here at Stone St Mary's, we will have taught them to be able to:

- Have a love of reading and writing, across a variety of genres

- Use rich and varied vocabulary in their written and spoken language

- Have an English toolkit which equips them to be effective "life-long writers" in all subjects as their journey continues through education. 

We have agreed a set of writing expectations for each year group. These were created to help our children know which features they should use in all writing. 

You may find these useful when supporting your child with their writing at home. Can they include each of these key features? 

Reading

Reading is one of the most important life skills.  It promotes achievement and ensures access to the breadth of the curriculum.  We teach our pupils to extend their concepts and find information, helping them to learn more when reading. We aim to develop a varied diet of reading, improving focus, concentration and memory.  When reading, we  become immersed in stories, visualising imagery, opening our minds and opening doors to new and exciting worlds.  Books can take us to new places, describing events and people from the past.  This year we have focused upon expanding our vocabulary and language usage. We have investigated new words and the roots of similar words.  This allows us to subconsciously absorb information on sentence and language features therefore improving our writing skills.

The Stone Reading Toolkit

We have created the Stone Reading Toolkit so that children can focus upon specific reading skills.  This helps when reading to adults both individually and during guided reading sessions.

Parents and carers will find the questions and sentence stems useful when discussing and questioning children about their reading.

Reading for pleasure

At Stone St Mary's we celebrate reading successes each term by holding a 'Reading Cinema'. Three children from each class are invited to attend. They spend an afternoon enjoying a film with snacks provided as a reward for 'shining' in reading.

This term, new librarians will be chosen from the Year 6 classes. They will be working hard to tidy and organise it.  They also arrange termly competitions with prizes for each key stage. 

We continue to encourage children to read regularly by taking part in our Buster Book Club reading challenge. This is a weekly competition whereby classes record their home reading each week and compete to win a trophy...and sometimes a prize too!

During book week we celebrate reading with author visits, workshops, competitions, dressing up on World Book Day and many other reading events.  This school year our Book Week will begin on Monday 27th February 2023 with World Book Day celebrated on Thursday 2nd March.

 Children are choosing to sit and browse a range of books around the school in our Book Nooks, which is lovely to see.  They are also enjoying reading during break and lunch times in our wonderful reading sheds. Please ask your child to show you these fabulous reading spaces next time you visit the school.

Speaking and Listening

Spoken language is the key to life.

It is the key to everything when it comes to learning

from literacy to emotional and social development as well as future life chances. Here at Stone St Mary’s children will have many opportunities to become confident speakers and listeners. We provide a creative and engaging curriculum designed to inspire and enthuse our learners. We teach spoken language through drama activities. Here at Stone, children are taught to script and perform plays/stories using language and actions to express and convey situations, characters and emotions. Children are taught to be competent listeners through drama and are able to respond to their own and others’ performances, commenting constructively on dramatic effects, characterisation and overall impact.   

Spelling