English Writing

Writing

Intent

We want our pupils to have a positive attitude to all forms of communication, and to be able to independently express their own ideas and emotions. Our aim is for children to write in different styles and for various purposes and audiences, to develop a wide vocabulary, and to understand the grammar and terminology for their age group, as set out by the National Curriculum.

Transcription is a priority for children in school. Handwriting and spelling is taught daily. By improving this, cognitive load is reduced and allows children to give further attention to more complex compositional writing skills.

Our aim is to ensure that children are fully immersed in all of their writing opportunities, and therefore, all writing is taught through the medium of high quality books. When children can associate with a book, they have a strong base to link their writing, thus increasing creativity and creating a true writers voice. Our dream is to create the writers of tomorrow.

We are ambitious for all children’s writing, and pupil groups, including pupil premium, SEND and pupils working at greater depth. Our intent is to continue to improve standards, so that by the end of year 6 more pupils reach the expected and higher standard in their writing despite the low baselines upon their entry into school. We strive for our pupils to write with consistent basic standards, greater grammatical accuracy, and wish for all pupils to acquire a rich and ambitious vocabulary to use in their writing across the whole curriculum. We want all our pupils to express themselves creatively, and to communicate effectively as they transition to Secondary school.

Implementation

CLPE Power of Reading

Our writing curriculum is underpinned by CLPE’s Power of Reading example texts. In all year groups, high quality texts are mapped that allow children to experience a wide range of authors and book themes on their journey through school. Due to the quality of the chosen texts, children are fully immersed in their focus texts and can make good links that are applied to their writing. The importance of children physically holding these books and turning pages is essential, and therefore, class sets of each book are used. The Power of Reading is a research driven program that is proven to heighten engagement in English writing lessons and accelerate progress of children, particularly in disadvantaged areas. It enables our children to broaden their cultural capital which is low due to the schools context.

Units of Work

Each block usually incorporates the following cycle: Immersion, taught vocabulary, understanding of a model text, sentence stacking to create a piece of writing, editing, twisting of the writing focus, planning, and finally, Independent writing.

A book is focused on for a half-term and 2 units of work are completed with each. Genres and purposes for writing are carefully matched to books to make good writing links, coverage throughout each year group and across school. Writing opportunities are designed to fully engage children and encourage a love of writing.

Immersion – purpose and audience of writing unit, reading of the focus book, drama, debates, roll on the wall, hot seating, conscience alley and many other techniques that will help lead into the unit of work. Roughly 3 days.
Vocabulary – explicitly taught vocabulary that can be applied to writing later within the unit. 1 to 2 lessons.
Understanding of model text – understanding as a reader and a writer. 1 lesson.
Sentence stacking to build a piece of writing – creation of a piece of writing to meet the purpose and needs of the audience. Led by teacher based on the writing skills needed. Around 3 to 4 days.
Editing – can be done within a lesson explicitly and throughout the writing process daily.
Twisting of writing focus – at this point, the writing focus is twisted so children can apply the skills used throughout the unit independently moving forward.
Planning – what is needed to write with success independently
Independent Writing – application of writing skills

Spelling

The school approach to spelling incorporates ‘No Nonsense Spelling’ scheme of work. Spellings are taught in a progressive manner from year 3 to 6 allowing rules and statutory words to be built upon gradually. Applying these across the curriculum and in context is a key aim that allows children to embed spelling knowledge. These are then assessed to monitor progress at timely intervals.

To ensure all children’s needs are met, adaptations are made to spelling words learnt so they meet the needs of each child. For those that need targeted support, ‘High Frequency Words’ and ‘common exception words’ are baselined and gaps in spellings are identified. Spelling words are then used based on this to ensure the most common words within the English language are read and spelt correctly.

Spellings are taught a minimum of three times per week.

Handwriting

Handwriting is an essential component in writing fluency. It is our goal to achieve writing fluency (good levels of transcription) so other components of writing (composition) can be prioritised and greater progress is achieved. Because of this, whole class handwriting is taught in all year groups at the start of English lessons 3 times per week. Handwriting is explicitly modelled using ‘Letter-Join’ principles as a tool to assist this. Each teacher and year group adapts this teaching depending on the needs of their class and specific weaknesses that are found. Once children are proficient with their handwriting, a pen license is achieved at different tiers: bronze, silver and gold.

For those that need additional support with handwriting, adaptations are made based on the needs of different children. For example, when fine and gross motor skills are inhibiting pencil grip or writing stamina, measures are used to ensure this improves. Activities are decided upon for these children by teachers on an individual basis. Where a physical barrier to handwriting presents, the use of technology is used to assist.

Grammar and Punctuation

The teaching of grammar and punctuation is immersed within each year group’s teaching sequence. This is done so by following the National Curriculum punctuation and grammar objectives sequentially throughout school. Punctuation and grammar is mapped and progressive to fit the genre/purpose of writing being taught and text choice. Chances to consolidate happens throughout each unit of work.

We use the principles of ‘Active English’ as a driver for grammar and punctuation around school. The consistency of this approach allows all children to know the structure of teaching which allows increased focus on the learning of different components. Active English is broken down into three parts:

Recall and Learn – flash cards to recap different elements of punctuation and grammar, Quick fire – retrieval.

Read and Respond – use of model text to teach focus skill (with links to writing where possible).

Create and Reflect – application of focus skill into the construction of a sentence.

The teaching of ‘Active English’ allows children to apply the technical skills of writing effectively within their own work. This is taught consistently across school to ensure children understand and carry knowledge forward as they progress through each year group.