Writing Statement of INTENT

Why do we teach this? Why do we teach it in the way we do?

At Spire we believe all pupils are entitled to access a high quality, broad and balanced writing curriculum. We intend to motivate our pupils and to explore their imaginations with the aim that they should leave Spire Infants as confident communicators and engaging writers.
It is the aim of the school that every child should be enabled to develop a fluent, legible style of handwriting. Handwriting is a movement skill and we aim to achieve this through teaching directly by demonstration, explanation and practice. Our intention is that capital and lower-case letters should be used appropriately and the letter size should be consistent.
At Spire Infant School we understand that literacy skills are essential to our ability to understand, interpret and communicate about the world and with each other. We aim to equip children with the skills necessary to do this, throughout the curriculum. Furthermore, we aspire to develop the pupil’s understanding of questioning and language to build up a purposeful and meaningful vocabulary through topic-related rich texts that are at the core of our teaching.

Our aim is to equip children with the skills needed for written communication throughout their lives. Through writing, children can extend their imaginations, broaden their communication, learn to express abstract and complex ideas, develop reasoning and critical thinking skills.

Three key features of writing that we aim to develop are:
• Writing comprehension and composition
• Transcription
• Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation

Further to this, we intend to equip the children to acquire a sound knowledge of spelling rules and patterns in order to become independent writers and to develop an ability to communicate their ideas effectively and confidently in both speech and writing. A successful piece of writing, achieved independently by the child, would combine these key compositional features plus recognisable spelling and legible handwriting.

We aim to implement this INTENT through quality first Teaching & Learning.

Communication & Language

• Listen to stories & sounds (Phase 1 and 2 Phonics)
• Developing listening and attention
• Understand and develop vocabulary
• Begin to understand,answer and use questions
• Learn new words and use them in communicating

Reading

• Recognise familiar logos and own name
• Develop interest in songs and rhymes
• Develop favourite stories and look at books (increasing range)
• Fill in missing words in familiar rhymes
• Join in with repeating phrases and refrains
• Rhythmic & rhyming activities

Writing

• Distinguishing between marks they make, giving meaning to them (including painting and drawing)
• Holds pencil with thumb & two fingers (physical development)
• Develop finger strength & wrist mobility (physical development)

Communication & Language

• Extend vocabulary and explore the meaning of sounds and new words
• Use language to recreate roles & experiences
• Use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking ideas, feelings & events
• Develop own narratives
• Answer a range of questions in response to stories and events

Reading

• Learn and apply the phonemes from phase 2 & 3 phonics
• Awareness of story structure, describing main events, story settings & characters
• Read print from left to right
• Continue a rhyming string
• Hear & say initial sounds in words
• Segment & blend simple words
• Begin to read words & simple sentences
• Begin to have an understanding of non-fiction texts
• Decode regular words and read irregular words
• Read and understand simple sentences

Writing

• Participate in Dough Disco and Squiggle whilst you Wiggle sessions
• Show a preference for a dominant hand
• Hold pencil with tripod grip with good control
• Learn and apply the phonemes from phase 2 & 3 phonics
• Link sounds to letters
• Write clearly identifiable letters
• Write own name and captions
• Write irregular common words
• Write simple sentences that can be read by themselves or others

Reading

• Apply phonic knowledge & skills as the route to decode words.
• Respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes.
• Read accurately by blending sounds in unfamiliar words.
• Read the year 1 common exception words.
• Read words containing taught GPCs - -s, -es, -ing, -ed, -er, -est endings.
• Read words of more than one syllable.
• Read words with contractions.
• Read books aloud which are consistent with their developing phonic knowledge.
• Read books aloud to build up fluency & confidence.
• Listen to and discuss a range of poems, stories & non-fiction.
• Link what is read to own experiences.
• Become familiar with key stories, fairy stories & traditional tales.
• Recognise and join in with predictable phrases.
• Learn to appreciate rhyme & poems.
• Discuss word meanings.
• Draw on what they already know or on background information provided by the teacher.
• Check that the text makes sense to them.
• Discuss the significance of title & events.
• Make inferences.
• Prediction.
• Explain clearly their understanding of what is read.

Writing

• Spell words containing 40+ phonemes already taught.
• Spell days of the week.
• Name letters of the alphabet.
• Become familiar with prefixes & suffixes - s, es, un, ed, er, est.
• Know simple spelling rules.
• Write sentences dictated by the teacher.
• Write sentences by saying out loud what they are going to write about.
• Compose a sentence orally.
• Sequence sentences by forming short narratives.
• Re-read to check it makes sense.
• Sit correctly at a table, holding pencil comfortably.
• Begin to form lower case letters correctly.
• Form capital letters.
• Form digits 0-9.
• Understand which letters belong to which handwriting families.

Reading

• Listen to and discuss poems, stories and non-fiction texts
• Read books fluently at their phonic level
• Apply own phonic knowledge to decode words
• Read common exception words
• Read words with suffixes
• Read words of more than one syllable
• Read contracted words
• Re-read texts to build fluency - check that texts make sense
• Answer questions and make inferences
• Predict what happens next based on what they've read

Writing

• Write sentences with different forms (questions, statements, exclamations, commands)
• Write expanded noun phrases
• Use present & past tense correctly
• Use Conjunctions (subordinating/co-ordinating)
• Using punctuation correctly (full stops, exclamation marks, question marks, commas, apostrophes)
• Write narratives
• Write about real events
• Write poetry
• Write for different purposes
• Create a plan before writing
• Evaluate writing with teacher and peers
• Re-read writing to check for sense 
• Proof read spellings

Handwriting

• Form capitals & lower case letters correctly
• Join letters with diagonal and horizontal strokes 
• Use correct/consistent sized letters and digits
• Use appropriate spacing between words