English

At Bayside Academy our English writing program, Writing Roots, is based around a Teach Through a Text pedagogy, which embeds all National Curriculum requirements and places audience and purpose at the core.

The  primary focus of the book-based pedagogy is to motivate children to write for a range of audiences and purposes using high-quality, diverse children’s literature by significant authors. We do this by s immersing the children in a range of literary worlds and themes, heightening engagement and creating curiosity through process drama, discussion and debate. This allows them to see themselves represented, and also explore the lives and experiences of others.

The carefully-planned sequences of lessons provide opportunities to explore writing conventions, which are embedded, and apply them into authentic writing for a range of real-life audiences. The writing outcomes are chosen for their pertinence and relevance to the particular point in the text (not chosen for their 'genre'), marrying the writing opportunity with the relevant conventions so that children see the purpose in the skills learnt. Skills and outcomes are revisited to practise and consolidate learning.