Ethos

At Ainslie Wood, we teach English in four distinct stages: immersion, text, sentence and word level. Text and immersion level focuses on the total immersion of a text, giving our pupils plenty of examples from which to draw ideas and develop a distinct style of writing. Sentence level is about the composition of sentences, with a focus on correct grammar, punctuation and conjunctions. Word level looks at our choice of language when writing, choosing accurate terms to convey meaning.

Handwriting

We want children to be able to write so that their words can be read. We practice handwriting, following the Little Wandle guidelines. We want handwriting to become automated by the end of Year 2 so that children are cognitively free to focus on other areas of writing in KS2. 

Spellings

Ainslie Wood uses ‘Shakespeare and More’, a spelling scheme covering Years 1 to 6 with progressively more difficult spellings. These are given out at the end of every week, with an informal ‘spell check’ conducted the following Friday.

Oracy

At Ainslie Wood, we believe that children should be given the opportunity to discuss ideas prior to writing in the form of oracy. This is a vital part of the writing process, as it allows for a collaborative attitude to be taken as we articulate our ideas and share good practice.