In Team AF and LL we have explored fiction and non-fiction. We have been looking at features of historical narrative through reading extracts of Emma Carroll’s Secrets of a Sun King in preparation for next term',s work on the Egyptians. In our work on non-fiction text we have explored biographies. We have explored a wide range of biographies identifying key features. Pupils then carried out research around Guy Fawkes, the Gun Powder Plot and Guy’s gruesome demise. Each child in Year 6 then wrote their own biography of Guy Fawkes. Using the features checklist created earlier in the half term, pupils were able to evaluate their own writing identifying what went well and setting themselves targets for development. During our grammar work, this half term we have looked at a wide range of punctuation including semi-colons and colons. Lots of children are now using these as appropriate within their own writing. We have also been identifying the subject, object and verb within a given sentence and identifying active and passive voice.

​Throughout Autumn 2, Team LF have focussed on fiction and non-fiction texts including atmospheric writing (based on the Lundhill mining disaster) and diary writing (from the perspective of a Barnsley coal miner). We have consolidated skills from previous learning and acquired new skills, such as the use of brackets and dashes for parenthesis, emotive language and relative clauses. When writing our own newspapers, we considered the layout and organisation of an article and incorporated this into our own published pieces, which we produced on the computers. Within our diary writing, we focussed on the difference between a written diary and a verbal diary account, taking into consideration the literacy skills of a coal miner in the 1800s. We recognised that a written diary would use standard English, whereas a verbal account would be ‘written’ in the dialect of a miner. With this in mind, we needed to make sure that our diaries, written or verbal, were consistent throughout.

This half term, Team CB have been continuing to develop and acquire new skills linked to writing. Over the course of Autumn 2, we have looked closely at both fiction and non fiction texts. We have written an information booklet linked to Mountains to support and educate the wider school on the importance of preserving these natural wonders. We thought carefully about features of non-fiction writing, including the way information is organised on the page and how this supports cohesion. We have then developed our understanding of conjunctions to give detail. We specifically looked at subordinating conjunctions and how these could be used in different positions within a sentence for impact. In addition to this, we have also written a character description. We used Inside the Villains as our text stimulus to create our own character description of the wolf. Our focus was around upleveling language choices, using pronouns and nouns appropriately for cohesion, as well as developing a rich and varied vocabulary. The class thoroughly enjoyed developing their understanding of newly acquired vocabulary through dual coding.

This half term, Team JF have been continuing to develop and acquire new skills linked to writing. Over the course of Autumn 2, we have looked closely at a variety of  fiction and non fiction texts. We have written a set of instructions to make the perfect jam sandwich to be used in our end of term queen’s tea party linked to our geography topic . We thought carefully about features of instructions, including the way information is organised on the page and the grammatical features we needed to include. In addition to this, we have also written some amazing letters to Santa! Our focus was around asking him some interesting questions, giving him some ideas of toys children may like this year and explaining why they would be useful gifts. The class thoroughly enjoyed developing their understanding of newly acquired vocabulary and I’m sure Santa will thoroughly enjoy reading them too! 

This half term, in EO Reception have continued to work hard on forming their letters correctly. Some of the children have been practising writing simple CVC words using our ‘Fred Fingers’ and have been applying this when accessing our provision activities. The Year 1 children have been continuing to develop their writing skills. Over the course of Autumn 2, Year 1 have been practising writing more than one sentence! At the beginning of the half term we focused on writing instructions on how to make a split pin Elmer and how to grow a rainbow. The children carefully identified imperative verbs to tell the their readers what they needed to do. The children also learnt about time adverbials and were able to use these within their instructions to say when something needed to be done. We have also focused on retelling the stories of ‘Night Monkey, Day Monkey’ and ‘The First Christmas’. The children carefully listened to the stories and used images of the main events to help retell the story.  

​In phonics, Team CW have continued to learn Set 1 sounds from Read Write Inc. Some of us have been learning “Special Friends” sounds. We have been working hard to hear words when they are segmented and to orally blend words. Some of us have been identifying Set 1 sounds within words and have enjoyed learning to read CVC words and words containing “Special Friends”. Some children have read “ditties” and have been learning to read some red tricky words on sight. We have had lots of opportunities to write in our provision areas including Santa’s Workshop and have written lists and instructions using sounds that are familiar to us or made marks. In our construction area we have been planning our models and labelling them and in our post office we have been writing lists to send to Santa!

The half term, the Year 6 Teams (Team AF and Team LL) have been working hard to improve their knowledge of SPaG. They have been learning how to correctly use complex expanded noun phrases, similes, metaphors, personification and consolidating their knowledge of word classes. Their writing has been closely linked to the current book they are reading – Alex Rider: Stormbreaker. As part of this, they have created a descriptive piece of writing where the children have described ‘Dozmary Mine’. The children have done a fantastic job of allowing the reader to feel the way Alex did by using a wide range of descriptive techniques.

​Over the last half term, Team LF have focused on maintaining basic skills within our writing. We linked our first piece of writing to our Geography topic and created a ghost story about Convict’s Tunnel in Wombwell. We have covered various SPaG elements including speech, fronted adverbial phrases and imagery. To ensure these skills were fully embedded, we then applied them to our atmospheric writing based on our hook video ‘Dracula’s Whitby’. In addition to the previously mentioned grammatical features, we also worked on including, similes, expanded noun phrases and simple and complex sentences to create suspension and tension in our writing