The Southfield Writer

CURRICULUM STATEMENT

We aim to inspire our pupils with a love for story and to develop their own narrative voice

Story as a way of thinking and making meaning of the world is prioritised

The development of nuanced writing styles from engagement with a myriad of children’s literature is fostered and encouraged

The development of word consciousness of 50,000 words by the end of year 6 is developed through all subjects exploiting words and phrases and incorporating them into the writing repertoire to facilitate selfexpression and imagination.

Our bespoke creative writing lessons allow children to engage with multi-layered picture books from Year 1-6 exploring themes and vicariously engaging with characters

As Frank Field commented ‘children learn to write by writing’ and all children develop significant stamina in writing extended pieces throughout English, creative writing and topic lessons.

‘Narrative is a primary act of mind transferred from art to life. It pervades human experience in our dreams, daydreams, anecdotes, jokes and arguments.

‘

Barbara Hardy

CURRICULUM COVERAGE

ENGLISH THROUGH LITERATURE

Our core aim at the heart of the English curriculum is to motivate children to become passionate and purposeful writers whilst making meaning and sense of the world around them. Underpinning this is the use of a rich and stimulating disparate range of literature designed to challenge, motivate and stimulate children’s imagination and understanding of the world around them. Each half term children study a picture book or class novel and use this as stimulus for their fictional writing. Children examine and manipulate key language, vocabulary and syntax whilst exploring characterisation, themes and genres of writing. Fostering and acquiring a strong and rich vocabulary supports pupils’ self-expression and ability to reason and articulate ideas

We believe strongly that through close guided reading of the text, all pupils acquire the internalisation of the rhythmic patterns of language and sentence construction which they can replicate and capitalise upon in their own unique writing style when writing independently. Through exploring high quality authorial texts, pupils gain an understanding of how to compose writing in different genres, writing for both engagement and purpose, and for a range of audiences

We sequence the curriculum to ensure all children begin to be exposed to the genres of English writing from Year 1 and develop cumatively their ability and skills each year in terms of depth and quality of writing to Year 6 Bigger picture concepts such as writing a report, diary or newspaper is distilled into sequenced and manageable learning Children interrogate a big picture outcome of what a successful genre looks like, they will study the grammatical and stylistic features. A further example is explored before children have the opportunity to write in the style of a genre at length. Genres will be revisited several times within the year.

Children explore genres such as recounts, explanations, narratives using the text as a foundation Teachers use a variety of tools to explore children’s meaning and understanding of language through the use of drama and role play, guided writing and examples of genres to analyse and interrogate. Research indicates that children learn to write through writing; adopting this approach we offer children the opportunity to write extended pieces in each genre and through high quality dialogic marking pupils improve their self-expression and ability to communicate in specialised genres of writing.

Grammar is weaved contextually into lessons with children reading and analyse live grammar through the texts they encounter. This in turn is incorporated into their own writing and self expression.

Adopting a transactional model of reading, we believe children bring their own knowledge and interpretation to a text and when they encounter a text there is a merging of the novel and their understanding of the world This element of personal growth is a core school curricula aim. Indeed, Harding describes the literature encounter as ‘when responding to great works of literature, the reader is changed and becomes something other than they were before’. We hope that children will become fluent, passionate writers engaged and fused with a sense of purpose and an ability to write for technical purposes and for pleasure.

Children have weekly drama sessions with a specialist teacher where they can explore aspects of the curriculum from a historical figure or a characters point of view in one of their novel studies. Pupils study Greek Mythology, Vikings, Romans in Britain, Goodnight Mister Tom, Charlotte’s Web, The Highwayman to name but a few aspects of the drama curriculum offer.

Pupils in Year 5 work with the Primary Shakespeare Company every year to put on a primary version of one of his most famous writings We have expert Shakespearian dramatists who hold sessions with the children at school and the unit culminates in a show involving a host of other schools which is held for parent’s at a local high school each year. It is a highlight of Year 5.

We also offer a lunchtime debating club hosted by two of our Key Stage 2 teachers which gives children a wonderful enrichment opportunity to develop their speaking and listening skills further.

‘Literature has enormous educational potential; it can enable children to experience a range of emotions safely and vicariously, promote understanding of the human condition… It can be a source of reflection on universal themes of courage, love, sacrifice, compassion. ‘

Nikki Gamble

WHAT DOES WRITING LOOK LIKE AT SOUTHFIELD?

Picture books are used as a stimulus whereby children explore themes, character feelings and the rhythmic pattern of language and vocabulary acquisition. Through the use of skilful teaching and the oscillation of pictures and language, children write an extended narrative replete with imagination and feeling. Teachers combine the exploration of themes with PSHE and citizenship aims allowing pupils to vicariously enter the lives of fictional characters safely and enter worlds that otherwise might be closed to them. Children as readers share the personal relationships, fears, hopes, failures and triumphs of the characters in the book. Fostering the gift of selfexpression is a fundamental aim of this unique type of literacy learning at Southfield.

Teachers’ marking is dedicated completely to meaning and engagement, valuing children’s ideas and inner narrative voice. Overwhelmingly, children gain confidence in writing at length and exploring their ideas and making sense of the world around them and their place in it.

KEY WRITING CONCEPTS

Four overarching key components underpin the teaching of writing and how English lessons are delivered:

COMPOSITION – Children write with purpose, developing a narrative and authorial voice through reviewing and editing.

TRANSCRIPTION – Children contextually weave in grammatical and correct punctuation into their written pieces.

ANALYSIS and PRESENTATION - Children work hard at presenting their work neatly and with individual discursive style of handwriting. All children use pencil up to Year 4 and then use a Parker fountain pen.

SPEAKING and LISTENING – In addition to English lessons all children have a weekly Drama lesson with a specialist. Year 4 children have speaking and performing lessons with LAMDA andYear 5 children participate in a Shakespeare performance.

HOW OUR 4 CURRICULUM PRINCIPLES ARE REALISED AT SOUTHFIELD

Story Centred Knowledge Rich

Story is used deliberately through the class novel and picture books as we believe that story is both a powerful conduit to understand how a writer thinks and writes.

Children are exposed to a rich canon of literature providing them with opportunities to engage critically throughout a unit.

Knowledge is synthesised and broken down conceptually through each session in a unit and children are shown what success looks like in terms of high-quality writing.

A fictional or factual story is read to children to deepen and prepare them for to use vocabulary and write emulating authors.

Each unit of English genre writing leads to core understanding which is sequenced and explored in subsequent units or year groups, each year progressing in depth and sophistication of writing.

Deliberate and aspirational high levels of material are used from a range of books and core non-fiction texts.

Children will produce an extended narrative story to articulate their understanding of a particular genre.

Children are equipped with topic specific vocabulary to understand and engage at a high level and gain understanding.

High quality outcomes and understanding is a pre-requite for each session. Pupil books will display a high-quality account of understanding through extended narratives written and presented creatively.

Children’s cultural capital will be enhanced through rigorous engagement with influential sources of English literature content and thinkers.

HOW OUR 4 CURRICULUM PRINCIPLES ARE REALISED AT SOUTHFIELD

Contextualised: Personal Growth:

Our English curriculum is contextualised through many visits to places of significance so that pupils can make tangible links and connections between their learning.

We value the understanding and experiences children bring to English teaching. This can be through sharing experiences of lived memories and experiences. We subscribe to Rosenblatt’s transaction theory of reading whereby a transaction takes place between the author and reader and that children bring themselves to a story.

Reception and Year 1 participate in many in school workshops related to their English topics.

Year 5 visit the Globe theatre

All children from Reception from Year 6 have a weekly drama lesson from a specialist teacher to contextualise their studies in English.

Year 4 attended Michael Rosen workshop on Poetry.

Year 5 children participate in a yearly Shakespeare project and perform to parents and schools

Author and illustrator visits to the school happen regularly

Children are encouraged through story to empathise and vicariously understand the characters and their views of the world Children engage in extended and personal narratives to construct meaning and develop as people.

Creative writing sessions are not taught nor marked for technicality but rather to encourage the development of personal narrative voices.

Class assemblies are often linked to class novels and characters and children internalise and reflect.

English lessons

Multi -layered bi-weekly picture book lessons

ASSESSMENT

Each week, children complete an extended piece of writing in their English books. This is based on their novel study in the first half of each term and on their foundation subject studies in the second half of each term, covering all fiction genres in the first 6 weeks and all non-fiction genres in the second. We also have bi-weekly Creative Writing lessons and our knowledge rich foundation curriculum which provide further opportunities for extended writing across the school.

These extended pieces of writing are all used to assess spelling, handwriting, grammar and punctuation and writing composition.

Each year group has a specific set of objectives with which to assess these written pieces and this is a working document which is updated weekly. This allows us to monitor progress regularly and address any gaps swiftly through dialogic marking, interventions, boosters and planning.