At St John Fisher CVA, we use Pathways to Write to teach children from Reception to Year 6 to think, talk, read and write as readers.
The writing curriculum aides progressive development vocabulary, reading and writing skills through the mastery approach.
The mastery approach ensures pupils from reception to year 6 are fully engaged in the context for learning and gives opportunities for pupils to practise the skills they are taught through shorter writing tasks before applying these within an extended piece of writing.
The writing curriculum links creatively to the wider curriculum, contributes to the development of cultural capital and uses a rich and diverse set of quality texts.
Working walls are used to capture the current learning and children can access resources to support their learning in all classrooms. Washing lines are also used to display the sequence of learning.
Our school follows the Pathways to spell approach to the discrete teaching of spelling from Year 2 to Year 6. Year group specific spelling rules are taught and revisited regularly and spelling lists are non-negotiable when used within the children’s work. Children in Reception and Year 1 learn to spell through the Soundswrite phonics approach.
We teach grammar and punctation within discrete lessons throughout the week and within the context of the Pathways to Write model texts.
Higher level language is developed with the use of “magpie walls” and a focus on highlighting quality language within day to day teaching and learning.
At St John Fisher CVA, we use the Achieving Excellence in Handwriting approach developed by Martin Harvey. The children are taught to print letters in Reception and Year 1. In Year 2 the children learn to write joined up which is then continued and practised into KS2.
Short burst writing
From cold tasks at the beginning of each unit, the teacher will have identified which grammar and punctuation focuses are needed during this sequence. These are practised and applied in context through Short Burst Writing. This helps the children to warm up all the writing techniques they will need to use in their writing to keep the reader engaged.
Spelling Resources
Here are some handy links to high frequency words and year group specific common exception words that children will practice as part of their homework. We encourage all families to support their children in practicing these regularly. This supports the scientific approach that we use at St John Fisher that regularly retrieval practice ensures learning is transferred to the long-term memory.
