Writing
Intent
At Roundhay St. John’s Primary School, we strive to help our children develop into articulate and imaginative communicators, who are well-equipped with the basic skills they need to become life-long learners; English learning is key in this.
We aim to ensure all of our children develop a genuine love of language and the written word through a text-based approach; this links closely, where possible, with our Learning Journey topics, allowing children to write as Scientists, Historians and Activists to name a few.
These careful links are made across the curriculum to ensure that children’s English learning is relevant and meaningful. We ensure that children develop an understanding of how widely writing is used in everyday life and, therefore, how important and useful the skills are that they are learning.
Our intentions in writing are for children to:
- Write for a purpose
- Write for a wide range of audiences
- See themselves as real writers
- Take ownership of their writing
- Take pride in their writing
- Where relevant perform their writing
- See writing as an interesting and enjoyable process
- Acquire the ability to organise, plan and edit their written work with increasing independence
Implementation
We have a rigorous, well-organised Writing Curriculum that provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. Teaching children to write for a range of purposes and audiences can be very exciting, especially here at Roundhay St. John’s where we provide children with a range of engaging hooks to capture their imagination!
Oracy is prioritised in our writing curriculum in order to build vocabulary for all learners and increase understanding of trickier texts used across our curriculum. Discussion, questioning and learning texts with actions all increase understanding and prepare our children with the tools they need in order to be successful in their writing. Our aim is for ALL learners to achieve their full potential in writing and we are committed to providing the scaffolds and challenge needed in order for our children to achieve this.
Throughout the Early Years, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, we teach writing through a text-based approach, which allows us to meet the needs of the children that we are teaching by choosing a text that will engage, inspire and motivate. Children read, analyse and evaluate a range of genres and then put this learning into practice in their own writing of these different text types. We aim to cover three different genres per half term, ensuring throughout the year children write a balance of both fiction and non-fiction, with audiences and purposes carefully considered.
Each half term, children will publish a piece of writing and this may be displayed in classrooms, school corridors or sent to an audience. This allows every child to have a written piece of work celebrated, as well as knowing they are writing for a purpose and being seen as real writers.
Teachers demonstrate high quality modelling within each English lesson and encourage children to include key vocabulary (linked to their Topic), structure their work appropriately into coherent paragraphs and use the grammatical skills and punctuation taught at their year group level. Guided writing sessions are used to target specific needs of both groups and individuals. Children have opportunities to write at length, in extended, independent writing sessions at the end of a unit of work – applying their taught skills to a piece of writing.
Spelling is taught daily in Key Stage 1 in phonics and spelling lessons. Early Years and Key Stage 1 follow the ‘Little Wandle’ scheme; from the Spring term in Year 2 upwards, classes follow the Jane Considine spelling programme. Through exploring spelling patterns and rules, we aim to create confident and proficient spellers using a discrete teaching approach underpinned by phonics.
A high standard of joined, cursive handwriting is modelled across school and children are encouraged to imitate this. Handwriting is taught and practised regularly in separate books but is expected to be evidenced throughout all work produced.
Impact
The main intended impact of our delivery of Writing is that all pupils enjoy writing across a range of genres, can write for a range of purposes and audiences, and become confident and effective communicators. They will amass a varied vocabulary that they can use across the curriculum and can apply spelling rules and grammatical concepts in their work.
Looking forward, we intend that all pupils will make good progress from their own personal starting points and be well equipped for the rest of their education.
Read our English policy here...
