At Abington Vale Primary School, we aspire for every child to become a fluent and confident communicator of language, who can express themselves articulately in both their spoken and written language. Through a text rich curriculum, we are determined for every child to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
Quality writing and extended writing opportunities are expected across a range of curriculum areas. We use core texts each term to plan quality written outcomes. Children learn to write for a range of purposes throughout the year and time is allocated to both fiction and non-fiction each term. The overview of how this is taught throughout the year can be found on our year group curriculum maps.
Spelling
At Abington Vale, we use Read Write Inc. Spelling. RWI Spelling is a robust, fast-paced, systematic spelling programme for children in Years 2-6. The programme supports the aims of the National Curriculum and teaches all of the spelling requirements across each year group from Years 2-6.
The process of learning to spell is cumulative for most children. Only a few children learn to spell effortlessly without structured teaching. Most need explicit systematic teaching that is continually practised and reinforced, until spelling knowledge is committed to children’s long term memory. The Read Write Inc. Spelling provides this structured, systematic teaching.
Grammar and Punctuation
At Abington Vale, grammar and punctuation is taught within our English lessons. We acknowledge that it is important that children learn the correct grammatical terms in English and these are integrated within our teaching. Within our English lessons, we explicitly teach identified grammar skills and then provide opportunities for the children to practise these.
Handwriting
At Abington Vale, we value the pride children take in their work and the quality of their presentation. Our children are taught handwriting using the ISHA ‘Achieving Excellence in Handwriting’ programme which promotes excellent handwriting and high quality presentation skills.
