We believe that writing is strengthened by instilling a love of reading. Reading a range of genres and text types helps pupils to acquire the structures of language, so that they can be stored inside their memories and manipulated down the line in their own writing. The more exposure a child has to high quality texts, the more experiences they have to draw upon when writing independently. Our reading curriculum not only provides pupils with a diverse range of themes within texts, it also provides challenge in syntax to ensure children are exposed to high quality writing models. We intend for pupils to leave our school as proficient writers who understand the importance of accuracy and intent in their writing composition.
‘The Write Stuff’ Approach
To ensure that children leave our school as proficient writers, we teach writing skills in sentence-based ‘chunks’ with intent and accuracy at the forefront, drawing upon reading where necessary. Using Jane Considine’s ‘The Write Stuff’, lessons are split into 3 parts, each part consisting of 3 chunks: initiate, model and enable. Through this sequence, children are able to gather ideas, see high-quality writing demonstrated by teachers and independently produce their own writing through various writing lenses. Each unit of writing slowly builds to an independent write where children showcase the skills they have learnt within guided sessions. Pupils are given the opportunity to edit and improve their writing after the initial draft using editing stations and may publish writing if this seems appropriate to the task.
Our writing genre progression grid highlights the text types children are taught within each year group and how skills progress throughout each phase.
We create links between reading and writing through the use of writing journals which children use to store words, phrases and sentence structures they gather from high quality texts. Teachers often use excerpts from authors within writing lessons to demonstrate effective use of language, sentence structure and authorial intent.
Alan Peat’s Sentence Structures
Sentence structures produced by Alan Peat are used across the school to support children in their writing. They are included in our writing progression grid to coincide with grammar and punctuation taught within each year group.
Writing Across the Curriculum
Children are given frequent opportunities to write in a range of contexts for a variety of purposes and audiences across the curriculum. Text types are outlined in long term plans alongside key skills to ensure a breadth of coverage. Teachers have high expectations of writing and promote high standards across all curriculum areas.
Handwriting
It is paramount that children are rigorously taught correct letter formation from the very beginning of their time in school. As soon as children are ready, they are taught the correct posture for writing and the correct grip to hold their pencil in order to develop a legible handwriting style.
In EYFS and Year 1, children follow a handwriting programme which enables them to print letters in the correct formation. From Year 2, children follow a continuous cursive programme which develops a fluent handwriting style throughout KS2. It is expected that all members of staff model the school handwriting style. By the end of KS2, all children should be displaying an efficient, neat and legible handwriting style that is effective in recording their ideas.
Spelling
To be able to spell correctly is a life skill. When spelling becomes automatic, children are able to concentrate on the content of their writing and the making of meaning; therefore, confidence in spelling can have a profound effect on the writer’s self-image.
In EYFS and Year 1, spelling is taught through the Read Write Inc phonics programme. Children are taught to blend sounds to read and segment to spell. At the same time, they learn words which are not phonetically plausible (common exception words).
From Year 2 onwards, ‘Spelling Shed’ is used as a resource to teach spelling. Children progress into using spelling patterns and rules as well as a growing understanding of the morphology and etymology of words to support their spelling. Spelling is taught discretely in short sessions, two times each week. A multi-sensory approach is encouraged to ensure a range of spelling strategies are covered.
Writing Assessment
A comparative judgement approach is used to assess writing across all year groups internally (within school) and externally (at a national level). Each year group takes part in a national writing window which provides us with moderated national grades, writing ages and scaled scores to measure pupil progress. Alongside comparative judgement, teachers use Teacher Assessment Framework to provide writing judgements at the end of each key stage.
Formative assessment is crucial in providing live feedback within writing lessons and we ensure children act upon this within lesson time. We believe live feedback provides the greatest impact; however, children may still be given next steps, if necessary, to address errors before starting the next learning chunk.
