We recognise that children come to our school with lower levels of literacy than average when compared nationally. Our curriculum intends to ensure that barriers to literacy are addressed so that children can leave our school as confident and literate, ready to tackle the next stages in their education and lays the foundation for our children’s adult lives. At Mersey Drive, we aim to ensure that wherever possible, our writing supports the teaching and learning across our wider curriculum.
We know that a love of reading exposes children to the rich literary materials required to support skilled writing. Our writing curriculum is centred around high-quality fiction, non fiction and poetry.
It is important that our children develop a sense of purpose for writing, and we ensure that writing for different purposes is planned to ensure children gain a secure understanding of writing for a range of purposes.
Writing for a range of purposes is planned as outlined below:
We understand that in order to facilitate strong writing, the component transcriptional writing skills are critical. From the earliest foundations in phonics, through to the explicit teaching of spelling and handwriting, whole-school approaches support children's cognitive load and develp a broad 'toolkit' for writing.
The teaching of writing at Mersey Drive follows our school writing journey. This writing journey includes three main phases:
Each phase of the writing journey comprises of a sequence of additional small steps which ensures that children:
We use the Penpals Handwriting Scheme as a whole-school approach. In EYFS and KS1, handwriting teaching follows the following format:
In Key Stage 2, children continue to use the Penpals scheme for handwriting. Key Stage 2 handwriting lessons include:
We use a variety of approaches to the teaching of spelling at Mersey Drive. In EYFS and Year 1, the foundations of spelling teaching are taught through our Little Wandle for phonics scheme. Children engage in daily spelling as part of their phonics teaching.
The Little Wandle 'Bridge to Spelling' programme is a 6-week transitionary scheme that aims to build on the strong foundations of the children's phonics learning and introduces spelling rules and patterns for the children to learn. Children in Year 2 then use the Little Wandle spelling scheme for the remainder of the year.
In Key Stage 2, the teaching of spelling follows the Spelling Shed scheme. Weekly spelling teaching focuses on a different spelling rule or pattern each week, and children have the opportunity to practise their spellings in spelling lessons during the week. Spelling tests are completed each week.
The teaching of grammar forms a component part of the Mersey Drive Writing Journey. Pupils have the opportunity to identify grammar features that are pertinent to different text types where appropriate and have the opportunity to practise and embed their grammar learning in the context of their independent writing. Modelled writing also focuses on the application of grammar rules in extended pieces of writing. The grammar objectives for each year are taken from the appendix to the English national curriculum.
We recognise that children come to our school with lower levels of literacy than average when compared nationally. Our curriculum intends to ensure that barriers to literacy are addressed so that children can leave our school as confident and literate, ready to tackle the next stages in their education and lays the foundation for our children’s adult lives. At Mersey Drive, we aim to ensure that wherever possible, our writing supports the teaching and learning across our wider curriculum.
We know that a love of reading exposes children to the rich literary materials required to support skilled writing. Our writing curriculum is centred around high-quality fiction, non fiction and poetry.
It is important that our children develop a sense of purpose for writing, and we ensure that writing for different purposes is planned to ensure children gain a secure understanding of writing for a range of purposes.
Writing for a range of purposes is planned as outlined below:
We understand that in order to facilitate strong writing, the component transcriptional writing skills are critical. From the earliest foundations in phonics, through to the explicit teaching of spelling and handwriting, whole-school approaches support children's cognitive load and develp a broad 'toolkit' for writing.
The teaching of writing at Mersey Drive follows our school writing journey. This writing journey includes three main phases:
Each phase of the writing journey comprises of a sequence of additional small steps which ensures that children:
We use the Penpals Handwriting Scheme as a whole-school approach. In EYFS and KS1, handwriting teaching follows the following format:
In Key Stage 2, children continue to use the Penpals scheme for handwriting. Key Stage 2 handwriting lessons include:
We use a variety of approaches to the teaching of spelling at Mersey Drive. In EYFS and Year 1, the foundations of spelling teaching are taught through our Little Wandle for phonics scheme. Children engage in daily spelling as part of their phonics teaching.
The Little Wandle 'Bridge to Spelling' programme is a 6-week transitionary scheme that aims to build on the strong foundations of the children's phonics learning and introduces spelling rules and patterns for the children to learn. Children in Year 2 then use the Little Wandle spelling scheme for the remainder of the year.
In Key Stage 2, the teaching of spelling follows the Spelling Shed scheme. Weekly spelling teaching focuses on a different spelling rule or pattern each week, and children have the opportunity to practise their spellings in spelling lessons during the week. Spelling tests are completed each week.
The teaching of grammar forms a component part of the Mersey Drive Writing Journey. Pupils have the opportunity to identify grammar features that are pertinent to different text types where appropriate and have the opportunity to practise and embed their grammar learning in the context of their independent writing. Modelled writing also focuses on the application of grammar rules in extended pieces of writing. The grammar objectives for each year are taken from the appendix to the English national curriculum.