Writing

Pupils with whiteboards

The Subject Leader for Writing is Miss A Frith.

Writing Statement of Intent

At South Hiendley Primary School,  we understand the importance of English in all aspects of education and in society. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; children who learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are at an advantage when continuing their education and further beyond into the workplace. We believe that all pupils should be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing. We want pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time in primary school. We want them to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
At the heart of this curriculum are high quality books. These are taken from the Power of Reading and Literacy Shed, and form the foundations of our writing lessons. Alongside this, key writing skills are taught and recapped daily to ensure children can write grammatically accurate pieces of work. We use Twinkl spelling and follow this progressive, structured scheme to teach spellings in KS2. In KS1, spelling is based upon the Read Write Inc phonics programme. Opportunities for writing across the curriculum allow our children to write for a range of audiences and purposes throughout the school year.

Implementation

We ensure that teachers of the subject have excellent subject knowledge, and leadership supports that acquisition of this for ECT and non-specialist teachers. Subject matter is presented clearly, teachers carefully check learning and identify misconceptions, providing direct feedback. Teaching is designed to ensure children know more and remember more.

National Curriculum statutory requirements are planned and delivered using strategies based on Rosenshine’s principles in action. This includes:

  • Knowledge organisers
  • Curriculum walls
  • Vocabulary
  • Carefully chosen resources
  • Daily/weekly reviews

We teach English as whole class lessons, so that all children have access to the age-related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum. Within lessons, teachers and teaching assistants target support so that pupils achieve an age-related level wherever possible. This may involve a greater level of scaffolding and access to additional support materials, Word Banks or a greater level of modelling. Pupils are given opportunities to extend their writing in a variety of ways, including through showing greater control in their writing, a deeper understanding of the impact that their writing has on the reader and by using a higher level of vocabulary and grammar features.

Grammar and punctuation knowledge and skills are taught through English lessons as much as possible. Teachers plan to teach the required skills through the genres of writing that they are teaching, linking it to the genre to make it more connected with the intended writing outcome. Teachers sometimes focus on particular grammar and punctuation skills as stand-alone lessons, if they feel that the class need additional lessons to embed and develop their understanding or to consolidate skills.

In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in writing, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school.

Impact

Children will know more, remember more and understand more about the curriculum. This is evidenced through regular pupil voice, monitoring and looking at outcomes which are measured against our age-based progression grids. Children are to retain prior-learning and explicitly make connections between what they have previously learned and what they are currently learning.

The impact and measure of this is to ensure that children at South Hiendley are equipped with skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world.