Our Writing Curriculum

At Northlands our writing curriculum is broad and balanced as we focus on a variety of text types - both modern and classic - inspired by rich high quality texts, film clips and our brand new class VR (virtual reality) headsets. These rich, quality stimuli are used as an inspiration for writing as well as providing our children the best opportunities to broaden and improve their understanding of vocabulary. 

At Northlands we teach English in sets for one hour each day as we tailor our children's needs to ensure they make excellent progress. Over the academic year, we teach our children a range of writing styles and genres as well as allowing them opportunities for speaking and listening and dedicated slots to practice handwriting and learn taught spelling rules. We aim to teach the process of writing through teaching an explicit grammar skill, which is to be implemented throughout the week, on a Monday. On Tuesday, we then plan our writing with a range of interactive strategies before two days (Wednesday and Thursday) where we compose our writing as well as allowing opportunities for editing. On Friday, we then focus on comprehension of texts where we specifically focus on aspirational texts for our set, where our children can expand their understanding of vocabulary and are exposed to highly skilled authors. As well as this, every class has a one hour Big Write session where they are provided with an exciting stimulus and then allowed the freedom to create their own texts focusing on a wide range of genres. 

Our aim is for our children to leave Northlands as confident writers with an extensive understanding of a range of taught grammar skills as well as a good understanding of how to compose and structure a range of different genres of text. We also aim for children to be confident public speakers as well as have a genuine love for writing.