Heatherlands Primary School
Enjoying Learning Together
Writing
The Writing 'Big Ideas'
The ‘Big Ideas’ relate to elements within a subject discipline or refer to important concepts that contribute to pupils’ personal and social development. It is essential that the ‘Big Ideas’ within each subject are understood by the children and become part of their common classroom language. In science, these 'Big Ideas' are:
- Accuracy
- Creativity
- Style
Heatherlands Writing Progression Map
After carefully reading through all your wonderful letters and fantastic work this week, and giving it much thought, it has become crystal clear how important the play equipment, Friday discos, and Wake-and-Shake are to you all.
Your arguments were incredibly persuasive, and many of you made excellent points about the benefits of these activities. You highlighted the importance of fitness, healthy living, well-being—and, of course, the essential ingredient to a happy school life: FUN!
We have listened, we have been inspired, and we are delighted to announce that we’ve decided to bring IT ALL BACK!
The play equipment is back for you to enjoy during break and lunchtimes. Get ready to groove and show off your moves because, Friday discos never went away and were here today in the sunshine to brighten up the end of the week. And don’t forget to start your mornings with energy and smiles—Wake-and-Shake will be back in action too, after the Easter break!
Thank you for sharing your voices with us. We’re so proud of the way you expressed yourselves and supported these wonderful aspects of school life. Let’s continue to work together to make our school a fun, healthy, and exciting place for everyone.
Keep being amazing!
Here at Heatherlands, we encourage the children to take pride in all the work they are completing, and recognise that handwriting is a big factor within that. The children are working hard on improving their letter formation and joining, and we want to acknowledge those that are showing Resilience and putting in lots of effort. The children we would like to celebrate this fortnight, are: Year 1 - Darasimi Olivia Year 2 - Suzy Year 3 - Bianca Year 5 - Nathan Storm Year 6 - Brunna We are also modelling some particularly lovely efforts from each year group on our new handwriting display in the main school hall - make sure you have a look next time you are in there!
Oct 2024 - Here at Heatherlands, we encourage the children to take pride in all the work they are completing, and recognise that handwriting is a big factor within that. The children are working hard on improving their letter formation and joining, and we want to acknowledge those that are showing Resilience and putting in lots of effort. The children we would like to celebrate this fortnight, are: Nico-Ren - Year 1 Jack - Year 2 George - Year 2 Lauren - Year 3 Daniel - Year 3 Harriette - Year 4 Hallie - Year 5 Hayden - Year 5 Harlow - Year 5 Holly - Year 6
Jan 2024 - Here at Heatherlands, we encourage the children to take pride in all the work they are completing, and recognise that handwriting is a big factor within that. The children are working hard on improving their letter formation and joining, and we want to acknowledge those that are showing Resilience and putting in lots of effort. The children we would like to celebrate this time, are: Sam and Frank - Maple David - Coral Lauren - Starfish Theo - Meteor Freya - The Den Jack - Kingfisher Keep up the good work, everybody!
The winner of the 'How to train your dragon' competition
Celebrating handwriting across the school - December 2023
Here at Heatherlands, we encourage the children to take pride in all the work they are completing, and recognise that handwriting is a big factor within that. The children are working hard on improving their letter formation and joining, and we want to acknowledge those that are showing Resilience and putting in lots of effort. This is the first of a weekly sample that we would like to share with you all, to celebrate the work of these children. Adrian - Cherry Ariana - Swanage Noah - Coral Lily-Mae - Mary-Rose Emily B - Sycamore Max - Mayflower Christina - Meteor Harley - Maple Anita - Comet Leo - Willow Kylo - Kingfisher Jack T - Kingfisher
We all arrived at school this morning to find that a group of cheeky elves have been causing mischief over the weekend! They snuck in through the ceiling, and knocked over our trophies, photocopied themselves and even snuck in to the book vending machine! We will be doing some work this week to explain what's been going on in school and why!
We looked at books from EYFS to Year 6 to compare expectations and outcomes.
Year 6 have been using a variety of techniques to build suspense. Here is one that we are really proud of. Well done J.
Friday 25th November 2022
LI: To use a variety of techniques to build suspense
Breathing heavily, my heart pounded - one false move and all could be lost. As I began to ascend the crumbling, mossy surface of what seemed like a high, impenetrable wall of rock, I began to smell the stale air and my head ached. The sky, a vibrant shade of azure blue, stood there, staring down at me, like a silent assassin, waiting for me to plummet to my fate.
I hesitated. I would have to muster all of my strength for the next kick; the closest ledge was at least two feet above me. Wedging my fingertips into the recesses of the rough, crumbling mountain face, I looked below – a vast, dense carpet of conifers lay 4000 feet below me. Would I make it?
Once more, I looked up to find that not only had I nearly reached the summit, but that a thick, grey carpet of clouds was forming above my head. I tried to call; nothing came out. Sweating profusely, I took three deep, heavy breaths, my conscience reassured me, and I proceeded with my climb, where I gripped the last crevice with ease, pushing myself up to the peak.
J
Year 6 suspense writing
Update on The writing shack.
English for communication, consolidation and community
At Heatherlands Primary School, communication is at the heart of the curriculum. All children will be equipped with the skills they need to interact with the learning in all subjects, and to navigate their daily lives. Teaching and learning in English provides the bedrock for developing excellent communication skills: within spoken language, within reading and within writing.
We have a text-driven English curriculum, whereby high-quality texts support progress and outcomes in reading and writing. Children are encouraged to read widely; in the earlier stages to decode, and then to develop fluency and confidence, which in turn will build their comprehension skills. High quality literature sparks children’s imaginations and inspires high quality writing outcomes in each year group.
As the National Curriculum 2014 states, “Pupils’ acquisition and command of vocabulary are key to their learning and progress across the whole curriculum.” The school aims to cultivate a vocabulary-rich environment, as a means to helping all children develop their experience and understanding of the world.
Consolidation happens through regular opportunities for the children to put their learning in all areas of English into practice independently, not only within English but in foundation subjects too. These “sites of application” of learning provide robust opportunities for teachers to assess children’s performance.
Through the English curriculum, children consolidate the essential skills for effective communication and are thus equipped to become confident and eloquent members of the community, on a school level, a local level and a global level. They will be given the skills to take an active role in life as a British citizen.
English at Heatherlands
“You can make anything with writing” – CS Lewis
Situated in Library Road, it is no surprise that Heatherlands Primary School enjoys a rich and varied culture of reading! We have worked hard over the last eighteen months to develop the children’s love of books… this year, we are aiming to help the children to become assured and successful writers.
We are putting writing firmly at the heart of the classroom, with our new “See How Far We’ve Come!” displays in each classroom. These writing displays show off each child’s work at different stages of the year. Last week, the children all wrote about the same picture, and the work they produced is visible on the wall of every classroom, demonstrating clearly that we value and celebrate our children’s writing.
Ms J Evans
KS2 Assistant Head and English Lead
The children have all written about this picture for our writing displays.
Q&A with Author Chris Connaughton
Story Writing Competition. As we gradually ‘unlock’ after the challenges of COVID, we are launching a writing competition to commemorate the difficult times we have all experienced! We would like to feature the writing of all the children who enter the competition in a book... and there will be some fantastic prizes for the winners across the school. The competition deadline is Friday 28th May. Please hand in your writing to your teacher by this date.
On Thursday 6th May, we were delighted to welcome the author Chris Connaughton to Heatherlands, to provide a writing workshop for each year group (more on these to follow!) While he was here, Chris was the guest of honour at the grand opening of our new outside area, The Hub, which will be used as a quiet space in the playground for children to sit, read and relax. We hope the children will enjoy getting to know this new space and all the lovely reading material available in it!
Mr Churchill & Chris Connaughton Hub opening.wmv
Spelling essentials
Writing
All of the children's English work is linked to a wide range of high quality texts by a range of classic and modern authors.
English national curriculum:
Handwriting
At Heatherlands Primary School we follow a pre-cursive handwriting scheme with lead in and lead out lines. Children are taught to begin joining their handwriting from Year 1. Children will begin to use handwriting pens from Year 4.
https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/
Parent Workshops
Throughout the school year there are various phonics, reading and writing workshops available for you to attend. Details of these will be sent to you by letter.
Advice for hearing your child read and spell:
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/welcome-back/for-home/reading-owl/top-tips--3