Writing

Curriculum Intent 

The English national curriculum (2014) states that: ‘The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.’  

We believe the exposure of children’s literature within the primary school setting is vital as a rich context for learning; not only within English as a subject but to support building a reading culture throughout the school.  We aim to use high quality books that offer opportunities for empathy and can aid philosophical enquiry, where children see their cultures, families and relationships reflected, as a means of developing the spoken language requirements through debate, drama and discussion using the issues raised through, and within, the text. We ensure pupils write for a range of purposes and write at length, with accurate spelling, grammar and punctuation. 

Furthermore, we have taken the ‘Improving Literacy in Key Stage 1’ research by the Education Endowment Fund (EEF) to develop an effective writing curriculum. This research shows that writing is a complex process and acknowledges that, pre-writing, drafting, editing, revising and sharing are strategies that are likely to help pupils. This forms the basis for our lesson structures.  

Our curriculum is designed to produce enthusiastic, confident and expressive writers. We equip our pupils with a solid understanding of grammar, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation that they can apply to a wide range of writing tasks in both their further education and everyday life. We seek to provide all of our pupils, not just some, with the confidence to express themselves through writing. We teach the skills and knowledge needed to become a successful writer e.g. sentence structure, grammar, spelling patterns, letter formation, texts types, audience awareness, planning and editing. Alongside this, this staff demonstrate a passion for writing, expose children to high quality texts, develop their spoken language and provide inspiring experiences to ignite children’s imagination and encourage a life-long appreciation and enjoyment of English in its many written forms. Specifically we enable children to develop: 

• the ability to use the English language clearly and confidently across a range of writing genres; 

• the ability to communicate effectively in written word; 

• a developed vocabulary acquired through discussions, reading and writing; 

• an understanding of how to use planning, drafting and editing skills to produce effective pieces of writing about real and fictional events; 

• the knowledge and skills to facilitate an accurate use of grammar and punctuation in context;  

• the ability to use etymology, morphology, phonics knowledge and spelling patterns to support spelling; 

• the ability to present work neatly and work towards writing with a legible cursive handwriting style; 

• the confidence to problem solve, using the skills developed in English; 

• the ability to independently apply English skills in other subjects of the curriculum and in wider life; 

Curriculum Implementation 

Through use of The Literary Curriculum we have mapped the coverage of the entire English Programme of Study for KS1 for Writing and Grammar, as well as meeting the needs of the statutory 2021 Early Years Framework. In many cases objectives are covered more than once and children have opportunities to apply these several times over the course of a year, as well as to consolidate prior knowledge from previous years. This approach supports children to think deeply and develop skills with depth. Where needed, planning sequences should be adapted, personalised and differentiated by the school to ensure all access arrangements can be made to support children with the requirements. 

Daily English lessons: 

In KS1, children have daily 45 minutes English lessons. In these lessons, children get the opportunity to:  

1. develop their grammatical knowledge 

2. explore the features of a variety of text genres 

3. Plan a piece of writing,  

4. Writing for a particular purpose/ genre 

5. Editing and improving the piece of writing 

. 

• Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation lessons are integrated into each writing unit, supplying the pupils with the knowledge required to transcribe their ideas fluently and effectively in a manner appropriate to the genre in which they are writing. 

• Editing skills are taught in each unit of work and pupils are trained to develop the ability to edit their own and others’ writing, improving each piece’s compositional elements and afterwards proof reading to ensure accuracy of grammar, punctuation and spelling.  

• Children get the opportunity to share their work at the end of each sequence of lessons. 

• Colourful Semantic is used to support sentence structure in all classes. 

Daily spelling lessons in Year 2: 

Spelling is taught through discrete, weekly lessons in which pupils are exposed to a spelling pattern or rule. Teachers employ a range of strategies to support the teaching of spelling. A home learning list of the weekly spelling patterns/rules is supplied to pupils to encourage practice at home and consolidate pupils’ spelling knowledge and understanding. Weekly spelling tests will be given in class. 

Through feedback and lesson activities, pupils are encouraged to employ strategies to self-correct spelling errors and improve their knowledge and understanding of spelling rules and conventions.  

Curriculum Impact  

Formative and summative assessments 

Teachers continuously assess their pupils’ progress using formative and summative assessments. SPaG is assessed through regular in-class tests and termly SATs style summative tests. Writing is assessed using the extended pieces of writing the pupils produce in their exercise books. A wide range of fiction and non-fiction pieces, written in both formal and informal styles, are produced throughout the year.  

Regular moderation sessions take place during the year within school, across the federation and with schools in the GLF Hub to ensure that the teacher assessment of our pupils’ reading and writing is robust, accurate and thorough. 

Monitoring and evaluation of the provision of English 

Regular work scrutiny of children’s books, planning and marking will be carried out by the Senior Leadership team and English Subject Lead. The Senior Leadership team and the English Subject Leader will conduct regular learning walks and pupil voice surveys to monitor the teaching of English. 

We have consistently reached around 80% ARE in Writing at the end of KS1 for the last 3 years. Our pupils talk passionately about writing and enthusiastically write at home (stories, fact files, holiday diaries…) that they share with their teachers and their classmates. 

Spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG)

Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation lessons are integrated into each writing unit, supplying the pupils with the knowledge required to transcribe their ideas fluently and effectively in a manner appropriate to the genre in which they are writing.

Spelling is taught through discrete, weekly lessons in which pupils are exposed to a spelling pattern or rule. Teachers employ a range of strategies to support the teaching of spelling. A home learning list of the weekly spelling patterns/rules is supplied to pupils to encourage practice at home and consolidate pupils’ spelling knowledge and understanding. Weekly spelling tests will be given in class.  

Handwriting

We recognise that handwriting is an important part of the writing process and that pupils’ writing should be clear, consistent and fluent to facilitate effective communication. Joined, cursive handwriting is taught, and support is given to those pupils who require additional instruction and practice to achieve a fluent hand.

Handwriting Policy LVSWriting Progression Document