Radcliffe Primary School
Writing
Intent
At Radcliffe Primary school, our aim is to provide our children with an engaging, exciting and empowering English curriculum that equips them for today and tomorrow. Writing is a crucial part of our curriculum. Our intention is for pupils to be able to plan, revise and evaluate their writing. To be able to do this effectively, pupils will focus on developing effective transcription and effective composition. They will also develop an awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. We also intend for pupils to leave school being able to use fluent, legible and speedy handwriting.
Our English curriculum is designed to:
- build on children’s prior knowledge
- provide engaging learning experiences
- allow the children to develop interpersonal skills
- become creative, critical thinkers.
Our curriculum unites the important skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening, discussion and reflection. It allows the opportunity for our children to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.
Implementation
English is taught across school using the National Curriculum objectives for English (2014). A minimum of 5 lessons are planned for each week. Pupils engage in:
- Practical activities
- Discussion using appropriate vocabulary
- Consolidation of basic skills
- Application into cross curricular objectives
Writing
We develop the children’s writing skills by:
- creating opportunities for emergent writing through structured play
- participating in valuable shared, guided and independent writing activities
- modelling the thought process involved in writing
- encouraging independence and responding positively to the children’s efforts
- providing key words to enable children to write with confidence
- providing opportunities to write for a specific audience and purpose
- using self and peer assessment to develop and improve writing
- teaching children the writing process of planning, drafting, editing and proof-reading in a systematic way
- emphasising the links between reading and writing
- teaching children how texts are structured
- encouraging children to be adventurous in their choice of vocabulary and to use a thesaurus
- providing opportunities to develop children’s skills in punctuation and grammar through meaningful activities
- exploring the use of ICT as a tool for stimulating, constructing and producing pieces of writing
Progression of writing skills
Specific writing genres are taught in every year group following a teaching sequence:
1) Activities relating to a good quality stimulus (book/film/picture/event/object) at the start of a unit of learning e.g. annotated texts, WAGOLL, character descriptions, vocabulary lists, notes made whilst watching a film clip, photos of drama activities etc.
2) SPAG activities appropriate for the genre being taught
3) planning, drafting, writing and editing opportunities e.g. shared writing, guided writing, slow writing - opportunities to write a mixture of short and extended pieces all building up to the final outcome
4) an independent version of the genre that has been studied. After the children have been taught a particular genre, they are given the opportunity to apply their knowledge when writing for a real purpose.
Impact
Children at Radcliffe Primary write confidently in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the situation. They are confident in using a wide range of vocabulary and punctuation, suitable to the genre. They plan, draft, revise and edit their own writing and are able to discuss their choice of vocabulary and structure with others. The children are also able to apply the skills they have learnt in English lessons when writing for real purposes across the curriculum.