INTENT – The Writing Curriculum
By the end of Year 6, we intend for our children to be enthusiastic, articulate and imaginative communicators, proficient in expressing themselves in various forms and for different purposes.
We see it as imperative for children to reach their full potential in writing, a life-skill that will serve them throughout any future career they may seek or any path they may choose to follow in life; their ability to achieve this rests on their skills and understanding in transcription, composition, oracy and grammar, punctuation & spelling, fundamental pillars of the English language. It is essential that our teaching and curriculum develops pupils’ competence in these areas by providing children with the opportunity to write for a range of purposes, forms and audiences and across the curriculum to help ensure their writing is relevant and purposeful.
Through careful planning, we seek to provide the children with a platform to take ownership of their writing, completing an enjoyable and interesting process which provides them with the opportunities to explore existing texts; share their ideas through speaking and listening activities; plan for structure, content and vocabulary; work collaboratively with peers and adults to develop their writing; and work independently to produce a piece of writing in which they can see a clear and meaningful purpose. Writing is an ever-evolving skill and we encourage children to edit and improve their work often, forever striving to produce their best work.
Writing, much like reading, another key driver in our curriculum, provides children with the opportunity to let their imaginations run free and transport them to other worlds in a way in which no other subject can match. It is our job to nurture and encourage this and ensure children are provided with rich and plentiful opportunities to express themselves through their writing. Our curriculum seeks to excite, engage and enthuse children whilst simultaneously providing them with the skills required to reach their full potential in writing.
IMPLEMENTATION – The Writing Curriculum
Our Writing curriculum is designed to ensure our children have a consistent ‘writing journey’; a build-up of essential skills to provide them with the platform to produce their best writing. Each year group follow a two-week writing journey where they will focus on one genre of writing at a time, culminating in a sustained piece of writing which they have the opportunity to assess, edit and improve. There is an emphasis on vocabulary throughout the journey and children are provided with example texts to explore as well as the time to plan their own vocabulary to aid them in their writing. Through shared writing, teachers model their own writing processes and work alongside the children to edit and improve their work. Children receive feedback from their teacher and a ‘next step’ to improve their writing once per week following shared and sustained pieces of writing.
Some of the writing journey’s will be inspired by core texts, others will be inspired by learning in other subjects, school / local / national events or other stimuli which will ignite an enthusiasm for writing amongst our pupil’s.
This is supplemented by our approach to Handwriting. We adopted the Letterjoin Handwriting scheme in January 2022, which allows us to have a consistent approach to the teaching of handwriting across the school, resulting in a neat and cursive style. Furthermore, children’s ability to develop in Spelling is supported through our SSP (Little Wandle) in Reception and Year 1 (and beyond), to No Nonsense Spelling from Year 2 – Year 6.
IMPACT – The Writing Curriculum
The effectiveness of our Writing curriculum is measured by the extent in which our children are able to write confidently and accurately across a wide range of genres and for various purposes and audiences. Children should leave year 6 with an enthusiasm for writing and equipped with all of the essential skills and techniques to flourish in writing for the remainder of their education and beyond. The impact of our curriculum is assessed robustly on a day-to-day basis to ensure it is providing children with the best possible foundations in which to succeed in writing. Our writing is celebrated and assessed in a variety of ways:
- Assessing sustained pieces of writing against the relevant writing objectives using insight tracker.
- Termly PIRA assessments to assess attainment and progress in grammar, punctuation and spelling.
- Whole school writing gallery showcasing the progression in writing from EYFS to Year 6.
- Regular book looks, learning walks and pupil voice to identify good practice and areas for development conducted by the English lead alongside the Headteacher and the link governor for English.
- Weekly awards for achievements in writing.
- Daily spelling and handwriting activities focussing on skills required for accurate and well-presented writing.
