Writing

“Description begins in the writer’s imagination but should finish in the reader’s."

Stephen King

Writing:

At St Giles, we strive to ensure that children are equipped with the writing skills that will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world.

We teach writing using ‘The St Giles Approach’, employing seven stages in our teaching sequence; immersion, skills, analysis, planning, writing, editing and presenting. A high quality fiction, poetry or non-fiction text is used as the vehicle for teaching.

English at St Giles is exciting, engaging and inspiring with many creative activities taking place daily. These have included Ancient Egyptian God or Goddess dress up days to inspire a free verse poem, CCTV videos of the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood to begin a sequence all about writing a wanted poster and using different materials to build the Eiffel Tower as part of a chronological explanation text learning sequence.

As the children progress through the school, they receive a rich and varied curriculum, due to high-quality teaching, careful assessment of learning and well-reviewed planning.

SPaG:

SPaG is an abbreviation for spelling, punctuation and Grammar. Children are expected to learn these skills from year 1 and in order for a child to reach the required level of knowledge, they must see examples of accurate SPaG and be able to use SPaG accurately in both their English lessons and independently in their writing.

SPaG is woven through our English curriculum, taught daily. Children are provided with examples of how a chosen aspect of grammar can be used within their focus genre and taught the correct way to use it in their own writing. The same aspect of grammar can be used in multiple genres, meaning that over each academic year, the children are able to recall previously taught knowledge and build upon it.

We use the DDAT writing spine to help us plan and assess. We were heavily involved in creating it and believe that it enhances the writing process.

Handwriting:

Handwriting at St Giles is taught through our spelling lessons and through explicit handwriting lessons. The children are taught to look at relationships between letters, how they look within the word and in upper KS1 and throughout KS2, how they should be joined.

We follow the ISHA approach which helps the children to understand the size each letter needs to be and where it sits on the line.

In EYFS, the children begin their writing journey by forming print letters, in line with government recommendations. Teachers use the Little Wandle ‘formation phrases’ to teach accurate formation which helps the children to understand before progressing to the terminology used for the ISHA approach.

Spelling:

In EYFS, spelling is taught using our Little Wandle phonics programme, with particular focus on the ‘grow the code’ chart. This enables the children to see the different ways in which a grapheme or phoneme can be represented and helps them to see how they can select the correct one.

In KS1, we continue to use our little Wandle phonics programme to teach spelling. We look carefully at the phonemes and graphemes that can be found in each word, spot patterns, discuss common exception word misconceptions and refer back to these during other lessons. We also send home the corresponding spelling card at the end of the week so that children can

Once in Y2 and showing signs that they are ready to build upon their initial phonetic knowledge, we move through Little Wandle’s ‘Bridge to spelling’ programme and teach spelling through the ‘Little Wandle Spelling’ resources. These sessions are taught daily and the children also receive the corresponding cards at the end of each week.

In KS2, spelling ‘The St Giles Way’ is consists of 3-4 short burst sessions a week.

Session 1- At the start of the week, we look at the rule together and the explore the different spelling examples. 

Session 2- Spelling activities session using the new rule. 

Session 3 – Spelling quiz using the pattern and recalling previous taught spellings or year group spelling words

Each week, we will send home the ‘spelling card’ which includes the graphemes or pattern focus for that week and two year group spelling words or words to recall.

At St Giles, we understand that reading, phonics, spelling, handwriting and SPAG should all have an equal focus in order for children to be given the right tools for writing and to build on the strong foundations laid upon joining our school.