Writing

Spelling

Every week, each year group follows a specific spelling objective for pupils to share in their log books with their parents. Spellings are taught during timetabled daily sessions using the Read Write Inc Spelling scheme in Year 2-6. RWInc Spelling is an interactive daily programme which teaches spellings in a fun and engaging way using proven strategies

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is a key component of our whole school curriculum aims. It is regularly referred to throughout all lessons and classrooms display the rich vocabulary taught.

Vocabulary at Athelstan comes in three tiers:

Tier 1 – Basic words that are used in everyday conversations and to which children are exposed on a regular basis.

Tier 2- Words that appear in different contexts and support pupil’s comprehension of texts. Each class uses a ‘Word of the week/day’ and these are displayed on class walls. During reading and English sessions, high Lexile-rated texts are used to immerse our pupils in reading, to expose them to new vocabulary whilst developing reading strategies to tackle unfamiliar words.  Children are effectively encouraged to use dictionaries to find definitions and word classes. They are encouraged to use a thesaurus to find synonyms/antonyms. Children identify how we can use the vocabulary to create different sentence types for a variety of genres. Words are displayed on English boards and in class dictionaries to promote a vocabulary-rich environment.

Tier 3- These are highly specialised subject-specific words which are displayed in the classroom. These words are taught as part of the wider school curriculum e.g. scientific vocabulary, topic-based words. Children are actively encouraged to apply these words to cross-curricular writing and in oral presentations.

Impact:

With our ‘book-led’ curriculum and clear writing expectations, children will become more confident writers exposed to a range of genres. As there is a strong focus on cross-curricular writing, the skills taught in English are transferred to other subject areas, consolidating skills and deepening understanding of specific grammar, punctuation and spelling. Writing is assessed against the expectation of the year group.

Assessed work is loaded onto Pobble360 and the writing is measured against the writing outcomes to justify judgements for age-related expectations. Writing assessments are conducted at least twice a half term and moderated within milestones, our partner schools and by the English coordinator. Results are recorded on the school internal data.