Literacy Curriculum

Intent

At Saughall All Saints Primary School, we endeavour to create a love for literacy. We want every child to leave our school feeling prepared with the skills of an excellent writer who:

• Has the ability to write with fluency and has an author’s voice;
• Is a critical thinker who considers the impact that they want their writing to have on the reader and knows how they will achieve this;
• Has a sophisticated bank of vocabulary and an excellent knowledge of writing techniques to extend details or description;
• Can structure and organise their writing to suit the genre they are writing and include a variety of sentence structures;
• Displays excellent transcription skills that ensure their writing is well presented, punctuated, spelled correctly and neat;
• Re-reads, edits and improves their writing so every piece of writing they produce is to the best of their ability and better than the last.

Throughout their time at Saughall All Saints Primary School, children develop their skills by exploring a whole range of different genres, with a focus on exploring a range of models of excellence and using these to guide the drafting and editing process. It is important to note that we not only develop a real enjoyment of writing in English lessons but in all subjects across the curriculum. We expect the highest standards of writing every time a child writes in any subject.

Implementation

Writing is delivered across the school for at least an hour every day. From Reception up to Year 6 we use as Scheme of work called Pathways, which is a comprehensive set of lesson plans by the Literacy Company. Pathways is a proven methodology built around units of work which develop vocabulary, reading and writing skills through the mastery approach. The units, provide clear detailed lesson plans and resources, linked to high-quality texts to ensure engaging and purposeful English lessons.

Writing skills are not just expected in literacy books but in all books. Children are encouraged to apply the mechanics and writing flair across the different curriculum areas to further embed their learning.

Writer of the Week

Each week, in Celebration Assembly, a Writer of the Week certificate is given out to a child who deserves recognition for a special piece of writing that they have composed. Their writing is then displayed on the Writer of the Week Wheel, situated in the school library.

Poetry Festival

Each year, Saughall All Saints hold their famous Poetry Festival. This annual event requires children to: study poetry, unpick poetry, celebrate poetry, learn poetry off by heart, write poetry and perform their poetry. Throughout the years, we have invited a variety of published poets into the school who share their wisdom and inspire the children for their future poetry-writing path. In addition to this, the whole school take part in performing their poetry to their own class where two representatives (from each class) go through to the Poetry Finals, which are then judged by a ‘select panel’ including a professional poet. It is a fantastic event that every child gets involved in!

Competitions

In Saughall All Saints we like to celebrate the children’s writing ability outside the parameter of the school. Most recently, a number of year 5 & 6 children took part in the Jubilee poetry competition held by the Lord Mayor of Chester and Chairman of Cheshire West. Three of our students received two firsts and a third place. Such an outstanding achievement.

Other events, in previous years, we have competed in are: 500 word Radio Two stories, Blue Peter writing competition and Julia Donaldson short story competition.