Handwriter of the week
Spelling outdoors
Handwriter of the week
Handwriter of the week
Handwriter of the week
Handwriter of the week
Handwriter of the week
Handwriter of the week
Winter poetry
Click the link below to read a wonderful poem, full of imagery and personification, written by Mayada in Year 5.
Handwriter of the week
Handwriter of the week
Handwriter of the week
Handwriter of the week
Creative writing workshop
This week, 12 children from years 3 and 4, participated in a writing workshop led by Jo from CLS (Creative Learning Services). The children were very excited as they got to explore some fascinating objects, to help unlock their imagination. They came up with some amazing ideas as to where these objects (eggs with unusual contents inside) came from and reasons why they were here. Some children said they were brought by aliens via a portal. Others said one of the objects was a futuristic communication device. The children then wrote a short paragraph linking all these ideas together.
Here are some responses from the children at the end of the session:
- I enjoyed everything but my favourite thing was writing the story. Thank you.
- I enjoyed the objects because they felt very nice and very beautiful.
- I’ve enjoyed it and liked playing with the objects and being creative.
- I enjoyed exploring the eggs and writing a story. I really want Jo to come again.
- I have enjoyed a lot. Thank you. I have also enjoyed the objects.
- I had so much fun, and I had a nice time developing my imagination. The best thing ever.
- I enjoyed exploring the magnetic dice.
- I enjoyed playing with the objects and being very creative. I loved writing because my mind was filled with many ideas!
- I liked exploring the objects 😊
- Thank you for coming and telling us all about you. My favourite part was the eggs.
- Fun, best, feeling good! I liked it. One of the best sessions. It made me improve my creative work.
Handwriter of the week
Handwriter of the week
Handwriter of the week
Handwriter of the week
Writing at Uplands Junior L.E.A.D. Academy.
At Uplands, the writing curriculum is structured to allow children to become independent, fluent writers, communicating effectively across a range of genres and text types. The writing curriculum follows a novel-based approach using high-quality books, allowing the children to use each text as a hook for writing, so writing outcomes link to the characters, themes, context and so on. By undertaking this approach, children will naturally pick up different sentence structures, be exposed to high quality language, idioms, learn the difference between formal and informal language, and it develops reading fluency and comprehension skills. See ‘Curriculum Planning 2022-2023’ under the ‘Curriculum’ tab on the school’s website for a list of the book being studied in each year group.
The writing lesson sequence at Uplands is as follows:
- Hook – this could be from the book, film snippet related to the book, role play etc.
- Discuss PURPOSE and AUDIENCE – every piece of writing requires a purpose (why is the writing being done?) and an audience. Levels of formality will change depending on the audience.
- Grammar lessons – grammar knowledge pertinent to the text type are taught in engaging and meaningful ways, and then applied in the independent writing sessions. Each year group builds upon grammar teaching from the previous year, as well as introducing new grammar knowledge relevant to the year group as per the National Curriculum’s statutory requirements. The national curriculum in England – English – Appendix 2: Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation (publishing.service.gov.uk)
- WAGOLLs – this stands for ‘What A Good One Looks Like’. These are model texts which the children annotate in terms of features of the text type being written, and vocabulary used.
- Modelled & shared writes – modelled writes are written by the teacher where they demonstrate and voice aloud their thought process, and shared writes are when the class and the teacher create a piece of writing together. These are always written in the text type being written, but with different content to the children’s independent writing.
- Plan – children plan their writing as a class/pairs/independentlyusing scaffolds/writing frames if necessary.
- Independent write – children write against the purpose and audience independently. If required, writing framesare provided to help structure the writing.
- Edit and proofread lesson – children proofread and edit their work either independently as ‘self-improved’ (SI) or with a peer as ‘cooperative improved’ using the ARMS and COGS approach. Children are taught the difference between editing and proof-reading as they are two different skills. To support this, each classroom displays a COGS and ARMS poster to support the children.
Writing Outcomes/text types
During their time at Uplands, the children will be taught to write a range of text types not only in English lessons but in other subjects of the curriculum too. The majority of these text types are repeated across each year group, but with a different purpose and audience, an increase in sentence and vocabulary complexity and a wider range of punctuation.
| To entertain | To inform | To persuade | To discuss |
| Narrative Description Recount Diary Letter Poetry In role | Instructions Recount Explanation Poster Biography Newspaper report Non-Chronological Report Leaflet Pamphlet Fact File Essay | Advert Letter Argument Advertising Speech Campaign | Speech/Debate Balanced Argument Review |
Exciting Sentences:
We are using ‘Alan Peat’s Exciting Sentences’ to develop sentence structure and enhance writing. These are sentence stems that are taught in grammar lessons as a way of providing alternative ways to begin sentences; they also apply grammar taught within each year group. These are repeated and applied to the range of writing outcomes throughout the year. Click the links below to see what will be taught in each year group.
 Click Here |  Click Here |  Click Here |  Click Here |
Spelling:
No Nonsense Spelling:
For teaching spellings, we use the No Nonsense Spelling Scheme. It goes through 3 phases of teaching spelling: ‘Teach, Practise, Apply’ and teaches the children fun and artistic ways to remember spelling patterns. It is taught 3 x a week and words and rules are applied within the children’s writing. As well as teaching new rules, the scheme revises prior learning as well as teaching and applying the National Curriculum statutory spellings for years 3&4 and 5&6. See link for further details: No Nonsense Spelling (Paperback) | Raintree
Spelling Shed:
This website encourages the children to learn their National Curriculum statutory spellings via a wealth of interactive games. Each child has a login. Stages relate to years so Stage 3 and 4 relate to years 3 and 4. Spelling words from the weeks’ No Nonsense Spelling lessons are added as an assignment to Spelling Shed so children can practice these interactively too. Links to this can be found on the Home Learning tab on the school’s website.
Parental feedback from Open Classroom 24.03.2023
It was really good, we enjoyed it and got some ideas to do with the children about spelling.
The teacher is amazing. The children are taught in a very easy and simple way which they can always remember. It’s like fun and learning together.
It was fantastic in the classroom. Thank you.
I really appreciate the way of teaching and discussing vocabulary with the children.
I really enjoyed this class, you teach them really well.
I really enjoyed the spelling session today, I gained an insight on how my child learns spelling and I can take this away with me and teach my children this at home Mrs Mamodbai is amazing!
So far I am glad to join the lesson, I enjoyed the teaching with several examples in illustration. I think it could improve if possibly you demonstrated things for instance, breaking chalk for fragile.
The lesson was very enjoyable, it was good to see all the children interacting well.
I have enjoyed the spelling session. I enjoyed the group interaction and then small exercises for the individual child to do. I enjoyed the layout.
Very effective teaching, keep up the good work.
I liked the sharing partner work in the spelling lesson and the amount of discussion.
Throughout the lesson, everything was clearly explained in more than one way. The kids can clearly understand the topic.
I was made to feel comfortable, the session was highly informative and enjoyable.
I liked Its Only Words.
I had a wonderful time and hope there will be more sessions with different subjects.
Interventions:
B-Squared – This is for children who need additional support. It is a scheme whereby children’s individual needs are met via a series of tasks and activities designed to enhance their learning quickly via repetition until they are secure.
Colourful Semantics – this is a scheme to help support children to develop grammatically correct sentences. It progresses in stages developing from 2 words up to 5+. Each part of the sentence is colour-coded to help them remember certain parts of the sentence.
Live Grammar and Punctuation Shows
Other websites to use to support your children: