Bourn English
(Writing, Handwriting and Spelling)
The overarching aims of the Writing Curriculum at Bourn Primary Academy are to develop fluent, imaginative writers who can apply their writing skills to a wealth of genres and subjects. At Bourn, we provide our pupils with many opportunities to develop and employ their writing skills across the curriculum so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions effectively to others.
Our aim is that pupils leave this school able to plan, revise, edit and evaluate their writing to produce quality pieces of work across the curriculum. To do this effectively, pupils will focus on developing effective transcription (spelling and handwriting) and effective composition (articulating and structuring ideas into speech and writing). They will also develop an awareness of the audience, purpose and context as well as an increasingly wide knowledge of grammar and ambitious vocabulary. We know and promote the value of an excellent, wide vocabulary and this is developed and practised across our curriculum. Opportunities to enhance pupils’ vocabulary arise naturally from their reading and writing. As vocabulary increases, pupils are taught how to understand the relationships between words, how to understand nuances in meaning, and how to develop their understanding of, and ability to use, figurative language. Pupils are taught how to work out and clarify the meanings of unknown words and words with more than one meaning. Our pupils acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.
Progression of writing skills is mapped across the school so that pupils develop key spelling and grammatical skills as well as expanding their range of reading material and knowledge of writing purposes over their time at Bourn. We follow a Mastery approach to English through the programme ‘Pathways to Write.’ Units of work are delivered using high quality texts and children in all year groups are given varied opportunities for writing. Skills are built up through repetition within the units, and children apply these skills in the writing activities provided. Many opportunities for widening children’s vocabulary are given through the Pathways to Write approach and this builds on the extensive work we do in school to provide our children with a rich and varied vocabulary.
You will find the end of year expectations for writing, reading and spoken language for each of our year groups in the attached documents. For further detail on the skills that your children are learning on a termly basis, please contact your class teacher.
