At Coleham Primary School, English is taught in an exciting, stimulating and enjoyable way. Writing is project based so that all writing has a purpose that engages our pupils.
Our Vision
Through English, our children will:
- develop a love of writing and express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively,
- have a secure knowledge of phonics,
- develop their communication and language skills and expand their vocabulary,
- write independently in a variety of genres and for a range of purposes with fluency, accuracy and enjoyment,
- develop a progressive understanding of grammar, punctuation and spelling,
- have a joined, legible and increasingly efficient handwriting style.
Meet our Subject Leaders
Teachers Mrs Stennett and Mrs Rank lead Writing, Reading and Spelling across school.
Writing
At Coleham, writing is taught systematically across the school daily (both in English lessons and other curriculum areas) and follows a read-to-write model.
In EYFS and Year 1, writing is taught in two week blocks, focusing on a meaningful theme that engages the children where both a fiction and a non-fiction text are explored. Importance is placed on the transcription skills so that our pupils believe in themselves as confident writers, and when ready they are exposed to the grammatical skills that will enhance their writing further.
From years 2 to 6, we follow a spiral curriculum to ensure that each writing genre is revisited by the children every other year. Each year the children will complete a variety of writing projects: four fiction, four non-fiction and three poetry. Each project follows a similar writing sequence: benchmark, deconstruction, reconstruction, performance and assess and review. The performance element is key as it gives the children a real purpose for writing.
The benefit of this whole-school, carefully sequenced approach is that previous learning can be built on effectively, giving all our children the opportunity to become fluent, expressive and confident writers.
Curriculum Progression documents:
Coleham Genre Coverage 2025-2026
Grammar and Punctuation
Pupils in all years are taught to use appropriate elements of spelling, grammar and punctuation based on the National Curriculum and our progression document. Both grammar and punctuation are integrated to writing lessons and emphasised when applying writing across the curriculum.
Grammar progression 2024-25
Spelling
In EYFS and Year 1, our children are taught phonics every day using a discreet, systematic, synthetic phonics programme. Spelling is then taught across years 1 to 6 following the Spelling Shed scheme of work. This is a creative and progressive program, which is delivered in discrete sessions, providing a comprehensive yet accessible year-by-year progression in the teaching of spelling. Spelling patterns are delivered using engaging resources that focus on word meanings, rules for spelling patterns, etymology of words and ensure that skills like segmenting and breaking words into syllables are still used to support spelling.
All children have access to the Spelling Shed online portal and can use their log in details to practice their spellings here:
EdShed – Educational products for spelling, phonics, literacy and maths
Handwriting
Handwriting (along with spelling) is the key foundational skill that empowers children to be confident writers. Handwriting is taught following the Penpals scheme and is delivered daily at the beginning of each English lesson. Letter formation is the main focus in EYFS and Key Stage 1; joining is introduced at the end of year 2 and by the end of year 6 it is expected that writers will be joining most of their letters at all times.