At Windhill21 we have designed a writing curriculum that is driven by a desire to ensure every child is a confident, inspired, independent writer. We want our writers to use ambitious vocabulary that is acquired through exposure to rich and engaging texts. Through our carefully designed writing curriculum, alongside our spelling and handwriting system, we believe our pupils have the tools required to become excellent authors.

Writing

We have based our writing curriculum on "The Write Stuff" by Jane Considine. This approach allows teachers to sequence pupil learning, moving from ‘big picture’ down into more detailed areas to focus on.  "The Write Stuff" follows a method called "Sentence Stacking" which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together chronologically and coherently to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing. 

"The Write Stuff" uses three essential components to support children in becoming successful  writers and these are displayed in each classroom as a Writing Rainbow.

The three zones of writing :-

• IDEAS -  The FANTASTICs  represent the nine domains of writing through which children can craft their ideas.
• TOOLS - The GRAMMARISTICS. The grammar rules of our language system and an accessible way to teach pupils grammatical and linguistic structures.
• TECHNIQUES - The BOOMTASTICs which helps children capture literary devices to writing.

To further enhance our writing curriculum we have a termly whole school ‘explore and engage unit’ which allow teachers to plan together on a shared theme. It also provides a fantastic opportunity for whole school moderation.

 

Spelling

At Windhill21, we follow Jane Considine’s ‘The Spelling Book’ approach to the teaching of spelling where phonology and morphology are at it’s core. Pupils take part in ‘daily fast tasks’, spelling investigations and are even required to be ‘Grapheme Grafters’. Our teaching of spelling equips the pupils at Windhill21 to become confident spellers by learning skills such as:

1. The Patterns of Spelling – knowledge, rules, commonalities and exceptions.
2. The Pressure of Spelling – real time, logical, edits and independence.
3. The Remembering of Spelling – learn, practise, recall, memorise.  

Handwriting

We follow the Nelson handwriting scheme to enable our pupils to form their letters and write in a joined script which is neat, fluent and legible.

Nelson provides a clear, practical framework for implementing and developing a whole-school handwriting policy full of enjoyable activities. It offers full coverage of the technical aspects of writing.