Writing
Intent
Literacy is fundamental for success in school and later life. We want to create a language rich environment which will promote both reading and writing. This in turn will develop our children’s competence in both transcription (spelling & handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speaking and writing). This overview focuses on composition.
“When pupils enjoy what they are writing about, they write more and they write better. When pupils have a clear sense of a real world audience that lies beyond the classroom, their writing is focused and they approach the task with a heightened sense of purpose.” Everybody Writes Project Final Report, 2011
We want to provide exciting writing opportunities that engage and inspire all children. They will have a solid understanding of grammar and punctuation and apply these effectively to their writing. We want our children to have a wide and rich vocabulary through reading high quality texts and enhanced experiences throughout the curriculum.
Therefore, the overall aim is to develop the children’s writing skills so that they are able to produce well-structured, detailed writing for different purposes and audiences. They can plan, revise and evaluate their writing effectively.
Implementation
We have designed a bespoke writing curriculum which meets our school’s context and the children’s emerging needs. As a school, we focus on using high quality texts, literature and stimulus to create links to wider curriculum areas and experiences. We ensure that our materials are challenging, current, relevant, diverse and representative of our school community.
We have a consistent and progressive writing approach across the whole school. Oracy, vocabulary and reading are interwoven and valued throughout the writing approach. We focus on a range of writing purposes- text types are covered at least twice during the year. Initially this may be heavily scaffolded and modelled but the emphasis on the second visit is to promote independent writing.
We use PATT.
P= purpose
A= audience
T= text type
T= tone
We explicitly teach PATT and provide modelled examples.
In Reception and Year 1, the main focus is on purpose and audience. The key writing focus is on the foundational skills of transcription and conveying meaning at a basic level. Different outcomes will be produced; with much more of a sentence level rather than text level focus. Text features and tone are linked to the application of basic skills and introduced later. Where possible, we make links across the curriculum to provide writing opportunities.
Grammar, vocabulary and punctuation is mapped out in a progression grid and long term plans. It may be taught as a discrete lesson in Key Stage 2 but is then applied to writing. The teaching of grammar and punctuation has a clear sequence:
- Explicit teaching and investigating in context through texts and modelled writing
- Practising the skill in context
- Applying the skill during writing and editing
Our text type progression overview
We identify children who need additional support and provide intervention in the most effective way for individual or groups of children. Some children may need additional scaffolding or may use a laptop for writing, which is included in the Universal offer. Some children have a personalised English curriculum which they access in class alongside their peers.
Assessment for Learning is embedded in all lessons and the children are active in reviewing their work, especially writing. They are able to identify successes and identify with support from their teacher, target areas for development to ensure a continuous and individualised approach to improving their work. We provide whole class feedback and provide individual targets on their writing checklists until February half term.
Writing moderation takes place within school and year group specific across the Dovestone Learning Partnership and the Local Authority.
Impact
We want our children to produce written work in all areas of the curriculum that is of a consistently high standard and for a range of formalities, purposes and audiences. In doing so, they leave our school having grown in ability and confidence with their reading, writing and speaking. They have become enthusiastic writers who have experienced a wealth of authors and genres. This has opened up their imaginations and desires to write more. The impact on our children is clear - they will have made excellent progress from their starting point and will have developed good transferrable skills.
We hope that as children move on from Christ Church CE Primary, their creativity, passion and high aspiration for writing remains with them and continues to grow and develop as they do.
