Writing

At St Mary’s, we believe that every child can become a confident and successful writer. Our English curriculum develops children’s ability to communicate clearly, creatively and effectively for a range of purposes and audiences.

We use HFL Education’s Essential Writing as the foundation of our writing curriculum. This provides a clear, progressive approach from Year 3 to Year 6, building children’s knowledge and skills as they move through the school.

Essential Writing

Essential Writing gives children regular opportunities to explore high-quality texts and authors, develop their vocabulary and understand how writers make choices for different purposes and audiences.

Across each unit, children are explicitly taught the skills they need to become successful writers. They develop their understanding of sentence structure, vocabulary, punctuation and text organisation alongside opportunities to plan, draft, edit and improve their writing.

Children write for a range of purposes, including to entertain, inform, explain, persuade and describe, and are encouraged to make increasingly independent choices about their writing as they progress through the school.

We want children to see themselves as writers and to develop the knowledge, confidence and independence to write successfully both in school and in their everyday lives.

Please see the document below for further information about our writing curriculum.

Spelling

Spelling is an important part of becoming a successful writer. We have introduced HFL Education’s Essential Spelling to provide a consistent, systematic approach to spelling across Key Stage 2.

Children have regular dedicated spelling lessons where they learn and practise spelling patterns, rules and strategies. They also have opportunities to apply their spelling knowledge in their writing and across the wider curriculum.

Spelling is reinforced through regular retrieval and revisiting, helping children to develop accuracy and retain what they have learned. Common exception words, statutory words and key vocabulary are also explicitly taught and revisited throughout the year. Please see your child's teacher if you would like more more details about this programme.

Children also have access to Spelling Shed at home and are set weekly assignments linked to their learning in school.

Grammar and Punctuation

Grammar and punctuation are taught as an integral part of our English curriculum. Children are explicitly taught the grammatical knowledge and punctuation skills appropriate to their year group, in line with the National Curriculum.

These skills are taught within English lessons and are applied directly through reading and writing. Children are encouraged to understand how grammatical choices affect meaning and improve the quality of their writing, rather than simply learning rules in isolation.

Children regularly revisit and consolidate key concepts through short retrieval activities. In Year 6, additional grammar and punctuation retrieval practice is built into Early Morning Work to help children secure and retain the knowledge they need.