Writing

Writing is a fundamental skill and is integral to all aspects of life within education and society. Living in the digital age has made literacy even more important. We understand that writing provides children with a vehicle to express who they are as people and to actively engage in daily life. Writing makes children’s thinking and learning visible and permanent. It provides children with opportunities to explain and refine their ideas to others and themselves. 

At Woodgate, we build our writing journey step by step. In EYFS, children learn pencil grip, letter formation and word sounds, which are taught through Drawing Club and across the curriculum. In KS1, children build on these skills with sentence formation taken from aspects of the Place Value of Punctuation and Grammar, Grammarsaurus and topic-linked writing units. This is further developed for children in KS2, who leave the school equipped with the skills, knowledge and adaptability to write different genres and a firm foundation of literacy tools that they will need for KS3 and beyond. 

Please note: our Long Term Writing Maps are currently being developed. 

Spellings

At Woodgate, we believe that by the end of KS2, children should have a solid understanding of the English alphabetic code and use this to read and spell accurately. We want our pupils to become confident in decoding and encoding in order to access texts that are inspiring and be able to communicate their skills in a literary context.

In EYFS and KS1, children learn and practise spellings in Read Write Inc Lessons. KS2 focuses on building on prior knowledge and learning new rules and exceptions, which are taught through discrete daily lessons. 

Reading

At Woodgate, reading is recognised as fundamental to the children’s learning and therefore is an essential and integral part of all areas of the curriculum. We understand that children will not be 'highly engaged' if they struggle to read, therefore the teaching of reading is one of our top priorities with a heavy emphasis on the teaching of phonics through the Read Write Inc scheme. In KS2, children are taught to delve deeper by exploring new vocabulary, summarising key concepts and digging further into texts to expand their knowledge of the wider world. 

Children are encouraged to read daily and have weekly in-school library sessions to support them to read for enjoyment. All children take a book home from the library and in KS1, children additionally take home two phonics books, to match their reading stage. Every class has a dedicated library, stocked with books suited to specific age ranges which cover a wide scope of interests. We also celebrate Author of the Month through school-wide assemblies and class reads. 

Please find below a list of recommended reads for your child's year group. Happy reading!