Buckingham Park Primary School

We take great care to select high quality books to inspire and enthuse children to write in each unit of work.  This means that children have a wide range of author's writing to draw upon when composing their own work.  We use a balance of classic and contemporary authors and each half term the children will study three or more books in depth in both reading and writing lessons. In each writing unit, the children are given the opportunity to write several smaller outcomes, which culminates in a more sustained outcome. Children's engagement is maintained throughout a unit of work through opportunities for stunning starts, role play, purposeful writing with an audience in mind, visits and visitors, using our school environment and visual media such film clips. 

Spelling, punctuation and grammar are an integral part of our English and wider curriculum. Teaching is integrated into teaching sequences for writing and discrete lessons are also delivered. At Buckingham Park we use the The No Nonsense Spelling Programme which offers a comprehensive yet accessible progression in the teaching of spelling. 

The focus of the programme is on the teaching of spelling, which embraces knowledge of spell- ing conventions – patterns and rules; but integral to the teaching is the opportunity to promote the learning of spellings, including statutory words, common exceptions and personal spellings.

Children's phonological awareness and spelling strategies are reguarly assessed and this informs teaching. Dedicated time is allocated for teaching and investigating spellings which are based on the spelling guidelines and lists in the Primary English National Curriculum appendices. Children are encouraged to practise their spellings as homework and are given tasks to support their learning in class. Children are taught spelling rules discretely.  Word banks, along with dictionaries, are used to support children's spelling at the point of writing.

The teaching of grammar is embedded into our teaching of writing, and through studying the use of grammar in the books we use.  Occasionally, if a gap in grammatic learning is identified we might teach that discretely, however it is more effective to teach through examples in real books.

Grammar Glossary from National Curriculum

Spelling information from National Curriculum

Spelling activities linked to the National Curriculum http://www.spellingframe.co.uk

Handwriting is a basic skill that influences the quality of work throughout the curriculum. By the end of Key Stage 2 all pupils should have the ability to produce fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy joined-up handwriting, and to understand the different forms of handwriting used for different purposes.

Our intention is to make handwriting an automatic process that does not interfere with creative and mental thinking.

Aims:

• To develop a neat, legible, speedy handwriting style using continuous cursive letters, which leads to producing letters and words automatically in independent writing.
• To establish and maintain high expectations for the presentation of written work.
• For pupils to understand, by the end of Year 6, the importance of neat presentation and the need for different letterforms (cursive, printed or capital letters) to help communicate meaning clearly.

To find our how to form and join letters click on the Letter Join image below.  If your child is at school you can ask us for the password to fully access the site.