From Year 2 to Year 6, children are taught age-appropriate spelling rules through use of the Oxford Owl scheme. This approach is underpinned by the Read, Write Inc. phonics scheme used within Key Stage 1 enabling children to build on their existing knowledge of sounds and spelling patterns.
Handwriting is taught in discrete lessons in classes, groups or individually as appropriate. Lessons follow a ‘teach, practise, apply’ cycle to allow children to learn how to develop a neat, legible style of handwriting with automaticity and pace.
Positivity Post
During the later half of the 2022/23 academic year, the school launched a project to focus on handwriting and presentation skills. As a school, we also wanted to do something nice for the local community! We decided to deliver some ‘Positivity Post’ to different houses around the school with the opportunity to use our best handwriting.
Examples of Positivity Post letters written by Y6 that were on display on their classes’ ‘Wall of Fame’.
In return, we asked for recipients to send us an email to help spread the kindness! We were blown away by the responses we received! Here are a selection of wonderful emails from members of the local community:
“Hello everyone in Year 3 and your teacher,
We came back on Monday from our holiday to find a big brown envelope beautifully decorated. At first we thought it was from our 8 year old grandson but then we noticed there was no address. We opened it to find a poem about adders. The person who wrote it had worked hard with their writing. I particularly liked the loops on y and g. There was a funny picture of an adder wearing a top hat. It made us laugh. My grandson saw an adder in the sand dunes at Sea Palling beach. He didn’t try to touch it because he knew it could bite.
Thank you so much for our lovely surprise poem. It made our day special.”
“Dear Hethersett Woodside Primary Children,
Thank you so much for the delightful positivity post I received yesterday through my letter box! It was a great surprise as it’s always nice to receive something new and exciting. I was very impressed with the handwriting and presentation of both the poem and envelope. It brought a smile to my families’ faces and to the Ukrainian refugees I have staying with me. So I thank you very much for your kind gesture.”
“Dear children at Hethersett Woodside Primary school,
Thank you so much for your positivity post which came through our door this afternoon.
It was lovely to receive such a friendly letter and very creative poem. The handwriting was excellent as were the pictures of our natural world. I understand you will all be having your summer term holidays very soon, which will be lovely to be outside enjoying the natural world, especially in this warm sunshine. Keep practising your handwriting, poems, and presentation skills, as your teachers and families will be very proud of you.”
“Good afternoon everyone …
Thanks very much for the poem which was posted through my letterbox today!
What a fantastic idea! I loved the poem about an adder – a beautiful creature that I saw once in Thetford forest whilst out on a bike ride. They are stunning …
Special thanks to the writer … beautiful joined handwriting and some lovely description! ‘Eyes like diamonds’ for example! Super! I used to teach Year 6 at the other school in Hethersett and was always frustrated that we couldn’t write more poetry – it’s fun and very creative with far less rules. Hope you have all enjoyed working on your poems. You maybe need to mount an exhibition of it! Keep working hard with all your writing because it is a wonderful skill to have that can bring great pleasure right through your life. You never stop learning! Many thanks again … keep working hard!”
“Good Morning, We hope you are well. We received a poem from you last week. We absolutely loved it and were very impressed with the dedication and effort put into it. Keep up the good work and we would love to see more of this in the future. A big thank you and well done to all the year 2 class at woodside, you have made Hethersett proud.”