At St. Peter’s, we believe our golden thread of PETERS Values should weave its way through our curriculum, including our subject of Writing.
Intent
Through the delivery of our English curriculum, we want children to become confident and capable writers, who develop a love of language and communicate coherently through their written and spoken language. 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, punctuation and spelling throughout their time in primary school. We want them to be equipped with the skills to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
At St Peter’s, we are guided by the National Curriculum for English - Writing (2014). The National Curriculum for English- Writing consists of 2 dimensions:
-
transcription (spelling and handwriting)
-
composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing)
Based on this, we aim to ensure that all pupils:
-
acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
-
appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
-
write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
-
plan, revise and evaluate their writing
-
spell quickly and accurately through knowing the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics) and understanding the morphology (word structure) and orthography (spelling structure) of words
-
develop fluent and legible handwriting.
We intend for our children to be inspired and motivated to write, through a range of stimuli: books, experiences and practical opportunities in order for writing to be embedded throughout the entire curriculum. We understand the natural relationship between reading and writing, and we strive to provide children at St Peter’s with rich, high quality texts to support their development as writers.
Implementation
Mastery Approach
At St Peter’s, writing is taught through whole class lessons, using a mastery approach. Children should have opportunities to write for a range of real purpose and audiences as part of their work across the curriculum. Grammar and punctuation knowledge and skills are taught through English writing lessons as much as possible. The required skills are taught through genres of writing, linking it to the genre to make it more connected with the intended writing outcome.
We have worked alongside Literacy Counts to implement a book-led approach to the teaching of writing. Our two-year cycle ensures that all of the National Curriculum objectives for each year group are taught and developed on multiple occasions, through multiple texts and with multiple opportunities for the children to enhance and develop their writing skills. Each unit begins with immersion in the text, followed by an analysis phase, covering familiarisation of the text structures, language features and writer knowledge, a plan phase to gather ideas and plan our writing, and a write phase. The write phase will focus on independent writing through the draft, revise, edit process and allow for independent application of writers’ skills and knowledge. Teachers may also utilise strategies such as modelled and guided writing to support learning.
Two different genres are covered each half-term, allowing the children to be exposed to a variety of texts, including fiction and non-fiction, whilst also writing two extended independent pieces, demonstrating their writing ability. Teachers plan activities which closely match pupils’ abilities, providing additional, individual targets to help close any gaps, whilst providing support through scaffolding and visual prompts. Opportunities are planned in for children to demonstrate their ability, to extend and apply their writing skills.Teaching continues to provide further opportunities to apply skills to new contexts.
Impact
Our English Curriculum is high quality, mastery-led and is planned to ensure progression. Our teachers measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
-
Ensuring children are provided with a wide range of stimulating books, experiences and practical opportunities.
-
EYFS and Key Stage 1 have daily phonics sessions and access phonetically decodable books, matching the sounds they have been taught.
-
Writing sessions and whole class shared reading sessions are led by high quality texts.
-
Moderate independent writing pieces regularly in year groups and termly in phases (or when appropriate) to consolidate teacher assessment.
The leadership team and English Subject Leaders check that this impact is being secured through monitoring the subject on a regular and frequent basis. The method of monitoring supports the ongoing development of the curriculum. This includes:
-
Staff subject knowledge, which is continuously developed throughout the year through training courses, moderation opportunities and lesson observations.
-
Regular staff meetings to discuss and evaluate the latest guidance and best practice within the subject. From this, new strategies and methods of teaching are shared and implemented.
-
Analysis of year group data to ensure progress and attainment and identify any need for early intervention.
-
The monitoring of books and lessons against the non-negotiables, so that inconsistencies can be addressed.
-
Tracking of content against the long-term plan of the school, to ensure the full breadth of the curriculum is met.
The impact of this is to ensure that children at St Peter’s are fluent, confident and capable writers, which will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world.