English

At Outwoods, we are incredibly proud of our writing curriculum, which is built on solid research. We use the 'Pathways to Write' programme to spark our children's enthusiasm for writing as they explore high-quality texts, applying their developing knowledge and skills across various writing tasks. This approach encourages them to tackle challenges with increasing confidence and creativity.

In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), children embark on a structured learning journey that helps them develop essential skills like oracy, listening, and recognising that their marks and writing carry meaning. A key aim of the Pathways to Write programme in EYFS is to make our children better communicators, engaging them with fantastic picture books that lay the groundwork for their literacy skills.

As our students move into Year 1, they continue building on their foundational knowledge. They focus on transcription skills and language understanding, benefiting from plenty of practice and well-planned oracy experiences. By the time they reach Year 2, our children are ready to start crafting extended pieces of writing with confidence.

Every unit in our curriculum follows a carefully designed process to engage our children. Every unit starts with a 'hook' lesson that sparks interest and establishes the purpose of the learning. After this, children have a chance to revisit and consolidate their foundational skills—these are what we like to call 'gateway keys'. At this point, we explicitly teach the transcription, composition, and grammatical skills we refer to as 'mastery keys'. Children throw themselves into short bursts of writing with enthusiasm, demonstrating resilience and a willingness to reflect on their progress. They quickly grasp that improvement comes from consistent practice and application in different contexts.

As students journey through each unit, they get to apply their skills in extended writing contexts, developing their planning, drafting, proofreading, and editing abilities. We methodically teach, model, and practise each stage of this process, gradually allowing more independence as they grow in confidence to use these skills on their own. Our wider curriculum also provides ample opportunities for independent writing, with plenty of chances for children to apply their skills in new contexts.

Oracy is another golden thread throughout the Pathways units. We weave in spoken language opportunities so our students can engage in discussions as a means of learning while honing their communication skills. Children love getting lost in stories and characters, sharing their thoughts, and using exploratory talk to develop their ideas, which translates into effective writing for various purposes.

Some of the texts we choose align with our broader curriculum. For example, Year 3 students explore 'Stone Age Boy' after learning about the Stone Age in history, while Year 6 tackle 'Island' following their science unit on evolution and inheritance. However, many texts are chosen simply because they are great reads, exposing children to rich, progressive vocabulary. Additionally, the themes embedded in these texts resonate with our school values, reinforcing our educational ethos.

Across the board, we give careful thought to the learning intentions for our children, ensuring they’re clear from the get-go. Children either focus on mastering a particular skill or writing with a specific effect in mind. With well-defined success criteria in place, we make sure learning is broken down into manageable chunks, paying close attention to the order in which new skills are introduced. We adapt instruction when needed, so every child can enjoy the writing experience at Outwoods. We celebrate each child's unique journey as a writer and the pride that comes with their achievements.

At Outwoods, we genuinely believe that every child is a writer.

Spelling:

At Outwoods, we are thrilled to see growing confidence in both reading and spelling since implementing our new Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) scheme, Read Write Inc (RWI). We believe that before children can spell a word accurately, they must first be able to read it.

Once they have mastered the 40+ phonemes taught in RWI, we begin teaching them the National Curriculum objectives for their year group.

Utilising the Pathways to Spell programme, we systematically and progressively enhance children’s understanding of words. Our approach follows a Review, Explain, Practise, Apply and Reflect cycle, allowing us to constantly revisit and address any gaps in learning and common spelling issues.

Thanks to this programme, we have observed a marked increase in children's confidence with spelling. They engage with the taught rules in various contexts and enjoy practical activities such as games and collaborative spelling tests.

To become proficient spellers, we believe children must have a strong understanding of phonics; understand and apply spelling rules; be able to identify tricky parts of words; practise spellings in context across the curriculum, and develop their proofreading skills.