English

Summerside Primary Academy, we believe that every child should leave our school with the necessary skills to write for a range of purposes.

We have created exciting long term plans to ensure that, throughout their school journey, our pupils work with a range of high quality texts. Many of the books that we have chosen are recommended by ‘The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education’. We know that there is a national writing gap between boys and girls, and with this in mind we select ‘boy friendly’ texts, which all pupils respond positively to. Our long term planning guarantees that the pupils experience writing in many different genres, ensuring that they have opportunities to build on previously taught skills and acquire new skills year on year.

Medium term plans ensure that within each writing unit the writing process is carefully mapped out. Our pupils are able to publish whole pieces of writing they are proud of. As we share whole class texts, the pupils really become immersed in the class text. They analyse text types so that they have a solid understanding of the structure, language features and knowledge of the reader. We deliver the teaching of the National Curriculum using exciting and creative approaches. We use drama, debate and arguments, shared writing and role on the wall, so that our pupils are able to orally rehearse their ideas for writing. This supports our pupils to take on the role of a writer, with an authentic voice. Our pupils write for many real purposes, for example, in Year 1 pupils wrote to parents asking for donations for their dressing up box and Year 4 sent persuasive letters to The British Film Institute.

Writing is closely linked to learning topics. During Black History Month, our Year 4 pupils write powerful speeches about segregation. Our Year 2 pupils write stories about a school trip to Antarctica as part of their ‘Water, Water, Water’ topic and following their trip to the seaside in Southend- On-Sea, the Year 1 pupils write and send off postcards to their families.

The children of Summerside are proud of their writing. There are many examples of high quality writing displayed around the school for visitors to enjoy.