Writing
We want our children to Enjoy, Believe and Achieve. We are committed to delivering a writing curriculum which enables all our children to become confident and ambitious, lifelong learners. We have extremely high expectations for every child to be a writer. We are committed to developing every child’s knowledge and skills so they are not only strong writers, but writing is a mechanism to develop and demonstrate a curiosity, aspiration and a love of learning that spans across the curriculum and into adulthood.
Intent
We want our children to love writing and for it to be a way for them to express and develop their creativity. Underpinning this is an absolute commitment to ensure that all children have the fundamental skills, providing them with the platform to become strong, confident writers.
Our writing curriculum is designed to maximise the impact of both of these areas on the children as writers and learners.
Effective questioning is a crucial component of all our lessons. Key questions are planned to encourage children to think about their learning, to reflect upon previous learning and to make connections between new and existing learning. Core principles of metacognition are continually developed to allow children to evaluate their own work and learning; increase their knowledge of themselves as learners; and then have the desire and ability to make positive choices to improve these areas. Children are taught specifically how to do this through frequent opportunities to edit and improve their own writing.
Implementation
Writing begins with the physical development of fine and gross motor skills to enable children to pick up a pencil and begin to mark making leading to creative and confident writers through the primary years. Our learners are inspired by our ‘Adswood Authors’; these are the authors or poets who write the texts that we follow as part of our LCC Focus Education topics. We display images of them in class and discuss other books or texts that our learners may be familiar with or may wish to read in the future. We also offer the opportunities for our learners to work with real ‘Adswood Authors’ through author visits. We have enjoyed working with Sarah Oliver, Daniel Henshaw and Denise Popat in the past and are hoping to invite other authors into school in the future. We also provide the opportunity for our learners to take part in virtual workshops.
Motor skills are developed through implementing the Martin Harvey handwriting scheme, which is taught from Year 1 to Year 6. Children are encouraged to apply their taught handwriting skills across the curriculum and aim for “Gold Star Standard” presentation.
In our Phonics lessons we follow the Read, Write Inc scheme.This helps to support children to transfer sounds to print. Children are then encouraged to use their phonic knowledge in their writing. The scheme is a phased approach introduced in EYFS and continued through to Year 2. From Year 3 through to Year 6 children follow the Headstart Spelling scheme which covers spelling strategies and methods for learning commonly misspelt words for each year group.
In Early Years the writing journey begins from mark making to sentences, every child explores writing through our provision and every day practise.
From Year 1 – 6 we follow FOCUS Education’s Literacy scheme and use recommended, age appropriate texts to generate our own pieces of writing. These texts/authors/poets are used to inspire the children to write a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry throughout the year. In the classroom, we use 'Writing Ladders' to build up skills and understanding before asking children to write independently and our English Working Walls are constantly updated and adapted to reflect learning within our classrooms.
Furthermore, as a school we feel it is important to boost children’s confidence and self-esteem. Therefore, we showcase our best pieces of writing on our WOW Walls and share our writing with parents/carers via Seesaw.
Impact
Evidence through pupil voice, observations and outcomes in books will show that children can articulate and demonstrate their application of knowledge and skills. A review of books will show children’s ability to reflect on personalised feedback received and children’s growing ability to apply metacognitive skills, showing a continuous improvement in all areas of writing. Children will be able to make connections between previous learning and transfer their writing skills to other areas of the curriculum. Teachers and children will be able to confidently discuss the coverage of objectives throughout the year and how these are applied in writing. Effective assessment, moderation and monitoring systems will help inform teaching and learning. Planned collaboration throughout the year will provide support for key areas of the writing process e.g. modelled writing, feedback and planning frames. Regular review and support for the effective delivery of interventions will help raise standards for all children.
In our most recent assesments, writing outcomes have improved significantly across school. Not only in our writing sessions but also across other subjects. Learner voice confirms that the school writing cycle is consistent and improves their writing.
Follow the links below for Home Learning activities/games:
Sentence Doctor- Can you diagnose the problem with the sentence?
Dropping In- Learn to write sentences with embedded clauses
Definitions- These simple animated deinitions should help with the technical terms used when writing
Sentence Magic- Learn different ways to improve your sentences
