Good attendance is necessary for all children, research shows that children who attend school regularly and punctually perform better overall and in their later lives. Therefore, the Government expects the level of school attendance for all primary aged pupils to be no lower than 97%
There have been a lot of complaints recently regarding parking around school before and after school. Please be considerate when parking, as some parents with pushchairs have not been able to get past due to parking on corners of the streets and residents have been blocked in.
We have several children in school with severe nut allergies, which require an Epi Pen. Please do not send your child into school with any nuts or nut products e.g Nutella spread for snack or lunch, as this could be life threatening to these children.

Writing

At Gorse Hall Primary and Nursery School we have a clear, consistent, whole school approach to Writing, Reading and Phonics. We aim for all children to learn from, and experience high quality texts, which results in them also developing a passion for Writing, Reading and Phonics.

In our writing, we have a clear sense of audience and purpose. This enables the children to develop their grammatical structures, knowledge of genre features, and the ability to choose the correct formality for a piece of writing. Children are given opportunities to create pieces of writing which they are proud of. The range of themes that we cover from EYFS to the end of KS2, aim to open the eyes and imagination of our children, and for them to then become inquisitive and want to discover more.

Implementation:

As part of the planning, teaching and learning process, teachers need to plan the following in order that the children have the skills and strategies necessary to develop into competent and fluent writers.

  • Encourage children to develop a critical appreciation of the work of authors, poets and illustrators in order to emulate these skills in their own writing.
  • Enable children to write for a real purpose, so that it is interesting and enjoyable.
  • Plan for children to write in a range of genres in fiction and poetry developing an understanding of how narratives are structured through basic English ideas of settings, character and plot.
  • Plan for children to write in a range of non-fiction genres structuring text in a style suited to its purpose.
  • Ensure that children use grammar and punctuation accurately.
  • Encourage children to develop their phonic knowledge, skills and understanding of spelling conventions and use them to read and spell accurately.
  • Ensure children develop a fluent, neat and preferably joined handwriting style as early as possible.
  • Teachers will complete a Blue Print for writing which will include contextualised grammar, responding to a text, and the writing process
  • Cross curricular links should be made, where the skills of Writing are also given high priority.
  • Our Long term plan ensures that  all year groups cover a range of genres and develop a range of writing skills during their time at Gorse Hall.
  • Progression of Writing skills planned for and followed throughout the school.
  • “I can” statements for writing to be used and inform assessment. Through this we can identify children who are on track and those children that need more support to achieve ARE and also those children who need to be provided with more challenge in order to achieve Greater Depth
  • Appropriate home learning tasks will be provided which children can complete with adults at home linked to learning in class

Impact:

Our English Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

  • A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes;
  • A celebration of learning each year which demonstrates progression across the school; including handwriting and writing skills
  • Book looks that will show progression in their writing
  • Pupil discussions about their learning.
  • Children are showing progress and achieving; Expected or Greater depth in End of Key Stage SAT’s.

Primary National Curriculum English
SPAG Glossary
Whole School Progression of Writing
I Can Statement
Handwriting Policy
Curriculum Map Writing