"There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they will take you." Beatrix Potter
Writing Intent
At St Botolphs, we believe that being able to write effectively is fundamental to a child’s ability to communicate. We want our children to find joy and purpose in writing and to recognise that writing is powerful. Our curriculum ensures the children have the opportunity to be creative, imaginative, persuasive and reflective. We ensure that the children recognize the importance of planning, editing, grammar, spelling and presentation within the process of writing and that above all they understand why they are writing.
Implementation
Writing links to all subjects across the curriculum. History, Geography, RE and science topics are used for both fiction and non-fiction writing. Trips, artefacts, drama, visitors, picture books, fiction books from guided reading or short films may also be used to inspire writing of different genres.
We use high quality texts to support our writing, using the ‘Talk for Writing’ method by Pie Corbett to help children internalize the structures of different text types and ‘Sentence Stacking’ by Jane Considine to drive forward quality sentence structures in every year group, ensuring that grammar is taught within the context of a piece of writing so that the children can see its purpose. Phonics are taught daily in EYFS and KS1. Spellings in KS2 are taught weekly with a focus on high frequency words and topic vocabulary as well as those in the National Curriculum. A focus on immersing the children in high quality vocabulary is ensured in every lesson by making use of ‘The Word of the Day’ to introduce children to tier two vocabulary, often making sure this is linked with our reading and referred to throughout the day in foundation subjects too.
Opportunities for whole class, group and paired writing give children the confidence to try out new skills, observe teachers modelling the writing process and refine their ideas before independent writing. We follow the cursive Letterjoin handwriting scheme, where children are introduced to leading lines in year one. By the end of year 2 the children are expected to be joining their handwriting. In EYFS the handwriting focus is on pencil grip, and the correct formation of printed letters.
Impact
Assessment is ongoing. Spellings are checked weekly, handwriting and presentation are continuously monitored. Marking is focused on the learning objectives, but mistakes with high frequency spellings or spellings with patterns/ rules teachers feel the child should be focusing on are also highlighted. Independent writing is a regular feature in every classroom. This writing is closely marked and assessed each term so that staff know what each individual child needs to do in order to progress. Staff meet termly in phases and collectively to moderate writing and discuss priorities for individuals and cohorts for the following term.
Deconstructing texts - find the language and organisational features in a model text.
