Writing

Intent:  

We believe that writing is a crucial part of our curriculum which has a strong link to our reading curriculum. It is our expectation that every child will leave our school with the skills of an independent writer who is able to express their thoughts and ideas confidently and creatively thorough the written word. Our aim is to create writers who have the skills to:

• write with fluency and stamina
• write for a particular purpose, being mindful of the audience it is intended for
• imitate the language, structure and punctuation devices used in effective writing models
• use a variety of interesting vocabulary and a range of writing techniques to write clearly and confidently
• display independent transcription skills that ensure their writing is well presented, punctuated, and spelt correctly
• review, edit and proof-read their writing so that every piece of writing produced is done to the best of their ability and

Our writing curriculum is planned to promote the cultural capital of all our children. We enhance our curriculum, especially for the most disadvantaged, by providing opportunities to write for a diverse range of opportunities including those which allow pupils to write about:

• influential and inspirational figures
• people and places from different cultures
• historical concepts
• current topics of interest and debate

Implementation: 

Our reading curriculum is intrinsically linked  to our writing curriculum. This gives the children the maximum opportunity to develop a strong awareness of the purpose for writing, the intended audience and the features required to write effectively across a range of genres through immersion in a range of high quality texts in  English lessons, Guided Reading and class story time.

As teachers immerse the children in variety of high quality texts they are supported in generating and developing  ideas and are immersed in the features of the text type and its grammar features while building a bank of wide and varied vocabulary.  We ensure that whatever we want the pupils to demonstrate in their own writing, is present in the texts that we immerse them in.

Writing like a Reader

The creative  process is responsive to what the children are reading and  writing.  There are clear goals and teaching and learning is focussed and is planned so that it is clearly sequenced to manage the children’s cognitive load and to ensure a greater depth of understanding.

Shared Reading

Immersion in the detail of a high quality text to understand its features , to generate ideas and to develop a wide and varied vocabulary that can be used appropriately for affect and impact.

What Does Good Look Like?

An in depth study of the genre to identify its key features through shared reading, paired work and whole class discussion through a series of sequenced, lessons that provide the opportunity to reflect, revisit and extend the depth of their understanding.

Clear Goals and Targets

Our children have clear understanding of the key skills they will focus on and are given the opportunity to regularly reflect and  revisit key skills and vocabulary until they are embedded.  

We read and discuss different examples of the text type. Pupils are encouraged to unpick the text to identify the key components for themselves. This process, although guided by the teacher who knows exactly what to notice, needs to be an investigative process for the children so they can really embed their learning.

The key role of detail

The ability to generate and develop ideas, practise writing sentences and practise linking sentences is a critical step in the journey towards becoming a successful writer. This aspect of our teaching and learning will integrate all of the SPAG work: as the pupils are writing teachers weave skills in through their modelling in response to what the pupils produce.

Writing Coherent Sentences

Our teaching models sentence construction and the importance of coherence.  The ability to take a noun and a verb and writing a simple sentence is key.  Children are encouraged to talk through what they are doing explaining the decisions they are making as they write. They use drafting and editing with support from talk partners and their teacher to create sentences of their own.

As they are writing their sentences, teachers search out opportunities to revisit and embed  prior learning and model new learning encouraging pupils to make effective changes to their sentences.

Coherently Linking Sentences

When the pupils can write coherent sentences in isolation, teachers move on to developing cohesion. Depending on the ability of the children, they will take between 2 and 5 sentences and model connecting them coherently. That could mean reordering them, using conjunctions, connectives, fronted adverbials, reordering clauses etc. Staff ensure that they think aloud as they are doing this demonstrating that there are multiple things that can be done with the same sentences. Whilst the pupils are working independently, staff monitor the room and give real time feedback in response to what they are seeing and re-model where required.

Developing a Story Line

Children are taught to develop chronology within their writing.  To embed key learning, the children are given time and encouraged to generate sentences before choosing and editing the sentences they want to craft and shared writing supports them in coherently joining their sentences as the story line develops.

This process can be supported by the creation of story maps and plans which remind the children what they are writing.   Vocabulary lists are provided, discussed and revisited and are stuck  next to where the children will write to support and encourage the use of powerful language.

Our goal is that children are able to confidently plan, draft and edit their writing to ensure it fits the brief they have been given, are able to  proof-read for basics such as capital letters, full stops, spelling and sense and can make constructive improvements to their own work and the work of others.

Impact:

• Through our very carefully planned and sequenced English curriculum, pupils will make good progress from their own personal starting points. By the end of Year Six they will be able to write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style in, and for, a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. Our pupils will acquire a wide vocabulary and have a strong command of the written word. Most importantly, they will develop a love of writing and be well equipped for the rest of their education in Key Stage 3 and beyond.