Writing at Lordship Lane
Aims
Literacy skills are, of course, a fundamental part of the primary school curriculum and at Lordship Lane we aim to ensure that all children are equipped with strong writing skills as a foundation not only for their future learning in secondary school but also for life beyond. We seek to ensure that children write accurately with regard to spelling, punctuation and grammar but also that they can express themselves eloquently in a range of contexts and use language imaginatively and creatively.
Curriculum
We use the Talk for Writing approach to teaching writing at Lordship Lane. This approach includes a focus on speaking and listening skills that helps to build children's vocabulary and helps them to learn new grammatical structures as part of the writing process. The precise objectives that children work on to make progress in their writing have been planned out for each half term across the school so that we know if children at Lordship Lane are making the expected amount of progress.
The majority of our writing teaching makes use of texts as stimuli. Sometimes these texts are the same as those used for Destination Reader in key stage 2, while other times separate texts may be used. These texts have been chosen both for how well they engage children in writing and for the high quality models of written English that they offer.
It is important that children are presented with books that are published by established authors from diverse backgrounds and cultures. The children at our school need to know that they too are able to aspire to write at the highest standard. As they analyse the books, unpick the themes as well as learn the grammatical techniques used, they are gaining the essential knowledge and skills to make them educated citizens. By presenting them with books that contain various themes, social interactions and cultural practices to inform their compositions, this offers them a window on the world that they might not normally experience.
Writing Teaching
In Early Years, children begin to learn to write in phonics sessions when they begin using the sounds they have learnt to write words. Other opportunities for writing are provided in short sessions in small groups. These writing sessions are generally based on books that the class have read together or other real life experiences that the class has shared.
In Key Stages 1 and 2, children receive a daily English lesson to develop their writing skills. They also receive separate short spelling and handwriting sessions so that the focus on their English lessons can remain on composition and expressing themselves effectively in written English.
Overview
The table below offers an overview of the texts that are used as stimuli for writing across the school. We have also mapped out when children learn specific writing skills across the school but this is not currently shared on this page.
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
1 | Rainbow fish, Marcus Pfister
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
The Mixed Up Chameleon, Eric Carle
The Koala who could, Rachel Bright and Jim Field
The Lion Inside, Rachel Bright and Jim Field
Kiss Goodnight, Sam, Amy Hest | Ruby’s Worry, Tom Percival
Ravi’s Roar, Tom Percival
What not to give an ogre for his birthday, Will Hughes
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Aliens Love Underpants, Claire Freedman and Ben Cort
Dinosaurs Love Underpants, Claire Freedman and Ben Cort | Fergal is Fuming, Robert Starling
Zog, Julia Donaldson
Little Red Riding Hood
How to Catch a Star, Oliver Jeffers
Splat the Cat, Rob Scotton
Love, Splat, Rob Scotton | Slinky Malinki, Lynley Dodd
Octopus Shocktopus. Peter Bentley & Steven Lenton
The Selfish Crocodile, Faustin Charles & Michael Terry
The Colour Thief, Gabriel Alborozo
Big Book of Bugs, Yuval Zommer
Billy and the Dragon, Nadia Shireen | The Day the Crayons Quit, Oliver Jeffers
The Day the Crayons Came Home, Oliver Jeffers
Pumpkin Soup, Helen Cooper
A Pipkin of Pepper, Helen Cooper
The Enormous Turnip, Ian Beck
The Tin Forest, Helen Ward and Wayne Anderson
| Silly Billy, Anthony Browne
The Storm Whale, Benji Davies
The Ugly Five, Julia Donaldson
The Tunnel, Anthony Browne
Black Dog, Levi Pinfold |
2 | Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Amanda Askew
Believe Me, Goldilocks Rocks!, Nancy Loewen | Out and About, Shirley Hughes
Mrs Armitage: Queen of the Road, Quentin Blake | Orion and the Dark, Emma Yarlett
The Gruffalo’s Child, Julia Donaldson
| Ada Twist, Scientist, Andrea Beaty
Stories from India (The Wicked Wish), Anna Milbourne | Zeraffa Giraffa, Diane Hofmeyr
The Diary of a Killer Cat, Anne Fine | The Bee who spoke, Al MacCuish
The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark, Jill Tomlinson |
3 | Narrative: Cinnamon, Neil Gaimon
The Emperor of Absurdia, Chris Riddell | Narrative: Tuesday, David Wiesner
Voices in the Park, Anthony Browne | Narrative: The Hodgeheg, Dick King Smith | Narrative: Greenling, Levi Pinfold | Narrative: The Tear Thief, Carol Ann Duffy | Narrative: Krindlekrax, Philip Ridley |
Poetry: Revolting Rhymes, Roald Dahl | Information Texts: Stone Age Boy, Satoshi Kitamora | Instructions: The Hodgeheg, Dick King Smith | Poetry: Quick, let’s get out of here, Michael Rosen | Persuasive Letters: My Shadow is Pink, Scott Stuart
The Proudest Blue, Ibtihaj Muhammad | Information Texts: History link to ancient civilisations | |
4 | Narrative: Leon and the Place Between, Grahame Baker-Smith
Varmints, Helen Ward & Marc Craste | Narrative: The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, Philip Pullman | Narrative: Journey, Aaron Becker | Narrative: Azzi in Between, Sarah Garland | Narrative: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore, W.E. Joyce | Narrative: Varjak Paw, SF Said |
Instructional Texts: Can I Build Another Me?, Shinsuke Yoshitake | Poetry: A Kid in My Class, Rachel Rooney
| Newspaper Reports: The Man who walked between the Towers, Mordicai Gerstein | Persuasive Writing: The King who Banned the Dark, Emily Howarth Booth | Poetry: Cloud Busting, Malorie Blackman
| Informal Letters: When Jessie Came Across the Sea, Amy Hest | |
5 | Narrative: There’s A Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom, Louis Sachar
| Narrative: Wolves in the Walls, Neil Gaiman
| Narrative: How to Live Forever, Colin Thompson
The Immortal Jellyfish, Sang Miao | Narrative: Nowhere Emporium, Ross MacKenzie | Narrative: Beowulf, Michael Morpurgo | Narrative: Wizards of Once, Cressida Cowell |
Newspaper Reports: Curiosity, Markus Motum | Poetry: Moon Juice, Kate Wakeling | Poetry: Poet Study – William Blake | Discussion: The Dam, David Almond | Persuasive Writing: The Island, Armin Greder | Biography: On A Beam of Light, Jennifer Berne | |
6 | Narrative: The Viewer, Shaun Tan
Kensuke’s Kingdom, Michael Morpurgo | Narrative: Wonder, R.J. Palacio | Narrative: Holes, Louis Sachar | Narrative: Welcome to Nowhere, Elizabeth Laird | Review: In this term, children write a range of texts based on a range of stimuli to review and demonstrate a range of writing skills (see separate document). | Narrative: Animal Farm, George Orwell
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Biography: Fantastically Great Women who Changed the World, Kate Pankhurst | Poetry: Overheard in a Tower Block, Joseph Coelho | Explanation Texts: Moth, Isabek Thomas & Daniel Egneus | Letters: Henry’s Freedom Box, Ellen Lavine and Kadir Nelson | Various: Leaving LLPS |