Writing at St Oswald's
Writing lessons are based on a high-quality literary text from which teachers plan a unit of clear, sequential lessons with explicit links to the National Curriculum. Children read and share the text and are given opportunities to discuss it and familiarise themselves with it. Opportunities are taken to use the text to learn specific vocabulary and to contextualise spelling, grammar and punctuation teaching. Clear writing outcomes are determined from the text, and children learn about specific writing genres and the language and structural features associated with them. Written texts are regularly modelled for the children, bringing together the creative and the technical aspects of the writing process in relation to the writing outcomes within each unit. Additionally, opportunities are regularly taken to develop reading and writing within other areas of the curriculum.
A cursive handwriting script is modelled and taught in EYFS and KS1. We aim to teach children to join their handwriting by the end of Year 2. Joined handwriting is then practised and developed to improve neatness, fluency and pace throughout Key Stage 2.