Writing

Writing: Led by Mrs King (Maternity). Miss Cook and Miss Macfarlane

Our intention is for our pupils to be able to express themselves using the written word, building the skills they will need to communicate throughout their lives. Writing is embedded across the school not just within discretely taught skills lessons, but through all subjects where the application of knowledge learnt can be directly applied.

Writing for purpose

Teachers across the key stages use a wide range of techniques to ensure that our pupils are fluent and confident writers. Our aim is to provide the children with the skills to write expressively for a range of different purposes, such as to persuade, to inform and to entertain differing audiences. In addition, children especially enjoy engaging techniques such as drama, role play and the inclusion of contextual learning across other subjects, all of which help our pupils to succeed.

Steps to Success

Our children thrive and achieve whatever their starting point and need. As such, teachers throughout the school guide and instruct pupils in a number of ways in which they can become better writers. For example: teacher-pupil sharing of writing assessments; agreeing achievable yet challenging targets; sharing and co-writing progressive and scaffolded success criteria; using year group specific ‘steps to success’ target grids; modelled and exemplified writing; and peer/self-assessment. The ‘steps to success’ sheets give children and parents a greater understanding of what the children’s writing should look like at a particular age and stage and include the skills they should have developed by these points.

Reading to Inspire

We are proud of the exciting and interesting writing that our children produce, and the wide vocabulary demonstrated by so many through regular and challenging reading. Many classes guided texts are the inspiration behind the writing that children do – studying great writing is not just useful for its grammatical accuracy, but for its link to the wider world and opportunity to develop great vocabulary and inspiration. Creating fact files, diary entries and additional chapters to name a few such tasks are all enjoyed across the school. Daily reading sessions in all classrooms further instil this love of reading.

Grammar and Spelling

The basic rules of grammar and spelling are taught explicitly first through Read, Write, Inc. Phonics lessons which begin formally in Reception. From Year 2, pupils continue with the Read, Write Inc. Spelling programme, a progressive scheme, building children’s knowledge as set out in the National Curriculum. We send individualised spellings home on a weekly basis and children are encouraged to write using a careful printed script from the beginning of school and moving into a legible cursive font from year 2 onwards. Handwriting is practised throughout the week in school. Grammar lessons are also built into the daily literacy lesson and build pupil knowledge and skills progressively following the National Curriculum.