At Stella Maris, we believe that language is a powerful tool for learning and social development and are committed to developing children’s spoken and written form. We understand that reading and writing go hand in hand; children need to be capable and fluent readers in order to become capable and fluent writers.

By using ‘Little Wandle’ we make sure our children secure the phonics skills along with other strategies to develop a love for reading and writing for pleasure.

We use The Power of Reading approach which supports our primary school in developing a high quality literacy curriculum which fosters a whole school love of reading and writing. 

The Power of Reading puts quality children’s literature at the heart of literacy learning and is built on years of research and best practice.  The programme develops teacher subject knowledge and supports our school in raising engagement and attainment in language, vocabulary, reading and writing and meeting all the requirements of the National Curriculum.

We recognise that writing is a complicated process and therefore, in order for children to succeed, our planning provides a range of scaffolds to support their success. These scaffolds include drama and role play, technology, writing for a range of purposes and audiences, explicit grammar teaching in context, exposure to high quality texts, visual and language models as well as the systematic teaching of spelling and handwriting.

All year groups have regular opportunities to write at length across a range of subjects, topics and genres. In addition to this, we have a process where children can write longer pieces engaging the children to write enthusiastically with increasing independence and stamina. These writing initiatives also provide opportunities for teachers to assess the child’s writing when less support is given.

We support children’s writing by bringing them powerful stimulus as hooks such as visits, workshops and experiences, but also by encouraging them to write for a range of real-life purposes and audiences at home and at school. For example:

• Shopping lists/ to do lists
• Diaries
• Letters
• Story writing
• Captions for photographs