Writing

At Manor Park Primary School, writing is taught through text based units, which allows the children to become fully immersed within a book and explore the language, structure and writing techniques used by the author. These are then used to influence their own writing.

At least one text is studied each half-term and used to create a wide genre of writing opportunities. Children are exposed to a range of fiction and non-fiction texts, including visual and classic texts, as well as poetry, this helps children to utilise and embed their writing skills for different purposes.

Please see our school writing overview, which details the texts each year group will read and the associated genre of writing. These genres are re-visited many times during a child's time at Manor Park Primary School with an age-appropriate set of criteria each time. This means that children become very familiar with these text types but learn how to improve and use a wider range of genre specific skills each time.

EYFS Spelling

Children in Early Years are taught spelling through our phonics scheme, Read Write Inc. Please see Read, Write Inc pages for more information.

KS1 Spelling

Initially, Children in Key Stage One are taught spelling through our phonics scheme, Read Write Inc. Please see Read, Write Inc pages for more information.

Once children in Key Stage 1 have completed the Read Write Inc programmes, they will move on to daily spelling sessions. These sessions teach the spelling objectives prescribed for each year group and consolidate the good phonic knowledge taught by the Read Write Inc phonics programme.

KS2 Spelling and Grammar

Daily spelling sessions take place in Key Stage 2. These sessions teach the spelling objectives prescribed for each year group. The focus for these sessions is to review, teach, practice and apply taught spelling patterns in a fun and creative way to allow pupils to apply these in their writing.

In KS2 we also teach Grammar skills through discrete SPAG lessons at the beginning of each unit and during our daily SPAG starters (see examples below) which provide a range of spelling, punctuation and grammar questions.

Spellings sent home (Spelling Shed)

Each week, children in Year 2 – 6 are sent home with spellings to practise. These spellings contain the spelling rule the children have been learning and embedding daily in school.

Children will be tested each week on these spellings and can practise at home through Spelling Shed. Spelling Shed helps children to practise and learn their spellings via a simple game. The game gives four different degrees of support in the form of difficulty modes: Easy, Medium, Hard and Extreme. Higher levels allow a higher score to be achieved but children can practise as much as they like on lower levels before trying to gain high scores. Spelling Shed allows the children to practise their weekly spellings in a fun and engaging way.

Each class will be set a list of words that children should practise each week and class teachers will monitor their progress. Spellings will also be put on seesaw to be practised and paper copies will be given to those children who need them. Children can access the online game via https://www.edshed.com/en-gb/login

The website can be accessed via the internet using a laptop or tablet for free, or via an app. You do not need to download the app as children can complete everything they need using the online version. For more information, please see our parent guide below.

Handwriting

At Manor Park Primary School, we teach joined handwriting. Initially, the aim is to ensure that all children are able to form letters correctly. Once children are forming letters clearly and accurately, we begin to focus on making accurate joins, ensuring that writing is legible and all lettering is formed at the correct size.This is consolidated and built upon throughout Key Stage 2 so that children develop their own, joined handwriting style.

In EYFS and KS1, we follow the Read Write Inc handwriting programme, which makes the physical process of writing – handwriting – enjoyable from the start, so children see themselves as ‘writers’. We use mnemonics – memory pictures – to help children visualise the letter or join before they write it down (see below). Children practise handwriting under the guidance of a teacher or learning support assistant so that they do not develop habits that will be difficult to undo later.

We stress the importance of handwriting position and pencil grip and refer to this during all lessons.

Below are useful images to show how we teach handwriting at Manor Park.