Writing
Intent
At Christ Church, we intend for our pupils to leave as confident, capable and independent writers, who not only understand the purpose and importance of writing but also enjoy the writing process. Our intent is to ensure quality first teaching of writing. We provide opportunities for pupils to use their writing skills across the curriculum and believe in delivering an inclusive, ambitious and diverse curriculum that recognises each child as a ‘unique child of God’.
Reading and writing is at the heart of our curriculum, as it provides the skills that are essential for life-long learning. Using the EYFS curriculum, the National Curriculum, and the Power of Reading Approach (CLPE). At Christ Church Primary School, we believe that quality writing is a process. As our basis, we have built a writing curriculum based on the 5 stages of writing. he ‘5 Stages of Writing’, include: Immersion, Planning, Drafting, Editing, and Publishing. We ensure our pupils have an understanding that writing has a real purpose and that vocabulary choice and style can bring about change and enjoyment, which is celebrated through the ‘publishing’ of their work. We have planned and sequenced the writing curriculum using a holistic approach, so that learners can build on previous teaching and learning and develop the new knowledge and skills they need, allowing them ‘to know more, remember more, do more’.
We believe that a quality English curriculum will foster a love of reading and writing in all children, and this will support pupils in accessing all areas of the curriculum. At Christ Church Primary School, every child will experience a wide range of quality texts that stimulate children to write in lessons. The texts have been carefully selected; they are inclusive to all; they are representative of our diverse school; they expose the children to a wide range of genres and authors; and they help to embed cultural capital, ensuring we expose our pupils to a breadth of experiences through our broad and balanced curriculum.
We recognise the importance of spoken language in pupils’ development across the whole curriculum. For children to become fluent, creative and confident individuals, they are encouraged to express their ideas through speaking and listening opportunities. Pupils are encouraged to take part in class and group discussions during the immersion stage, where they are given a range of opportunities to take part in role play and drama activities, debates and discussions and group activities that are used as stimuli for their writing.
Our intention is:
To celebrate writing across the curriculum and ensure our pupils understand that writing takes place in all areas, not just within our English lessons.
To provide exciting writing opportunities and experiences that engage and enhance all pupils.
To ensure pupils understand how to write clearly, accurately, and coherently, adapting their language and style to a range of contexts, purposes, and audiences.
To teach pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary and to be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time in primary school.
To ensure pupils have a solid understanding of grammar and apply it effectively to their writing.
To encourage pupils to take pride in the presentation of their writing, by developing a legible, cursive, individual handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school
Implementation
How we teach writing: English lessons take place daily across the school. At Christ Church Primary School, writing is taught in all English lessons through the use of high-quality texts (mostly from The Power of Reading). We passionately believe that reading and writing are inextricably linked therefore studying the text in both reading skills and writing sessions encourages children to make links and become empathetic and ambitious writers.
EYFS: Early writing is taught through early mark making and when the children begin Read Write Inc phonics, they are taught letter formations. This begins with writing (whether with a writing tool or in the air) cvc words, moving onto short sentences using the sounds they have been taught. They have daily English lessons and work is evidenced within their English book. They have a class text, selected from The Power of Reading Scheme and are encouraged to write independently during continuous provision, which immerses the children in writing through a particular theme, linked to the class text.
KS1: In Year 1 and 2, our English planning follows the structure of the 5 stages of Writing. In KS1 they focus particularly on immersion, planning, and drafting. Once the children have been fully immersed into their writing, teachers will model how to plan, with the introduction to text types, audience and discussions around the purpose of their writing. Through the use of high quality modelling and a shared writing approach, children will begin the drafting stage. They write over the course of a few days, allowing them time to focus on grammatical features and basic sentence structures. Children are encouraged to start the editing process from Year 1, where children learn the importance of reading their work out loud in order to check if the writing makes sense. In Year 2, children are introduced to a green editing pen. The teachers will highlight basic areas for improvement and the children start to identify their punctuation and spelling errors.
KS2: All KS2 classes follow the structure of the 5 stages of writing that includes: Immersion, planning, drafting, editing and publishing. Pupils are taught quality writing is a process. They are given opportunities to write from a range of genres with different audiences and purposes. Pupils are provided with age appropriate vocabulary and writing aids to support them in their writing. As pupils progress through the school, they are encouraged to draw on their reading and writing experience to develop their own writers’ voice.
Spelling
Teaching and learning of spelling in the EYFS and Key Stage 1 is underpinned by the use of a high quality phonics programme (RWI), alongside the National Curriculum requirements for spelling in Years 1 and 2.
From Year 1 to Year 6, we follow the PiXL Spelling approach, where children explore spelling patterns and rules.
Pupils are also taught to:
Spell accurately and identify reasons for mis-spellings
Proof-read their spellings
Recognise and use word origins, families and roots to build their skills
Use dictionaries and thesauruses.
Handwriting
Formal teaching of handwriting is carried out regularly and systematically to ensure Key Stage targets are met. We use Letter Join Handwriting scheme form EYFS- Year 6. In EYFS and Year 1 pupils focus on basic letter formation and they begin to learn a pre-cursive style. From Year 2-Year 6, pupils continue to build on producing fluent, consistent and legible cursive handwriting, applying size-appropriate handwriting to all areas of the curriculum in order to improve their quality, speed and stamina for writing.
Wider Opportunities
Our English curriculum is designed to engage and enthuse our pupils with wider opportunities. We hold special events and competitions to help inspire and instil a love of reading and writing in all children. World Book Day, Poetry Week, Shakespeare Day, Black History Month and writing competitions, are just some of the core events that help enrich the children's wider learning which encourages a love of reading, writing and performing literature.
Impact
At Christ Church, through high-quality teaching, we aspire for all children to be challenged and supported to achieve their best possible results by the end of EYFS, KS1 and KS2. As they progress through school, pupils will develop as able, confident and enthusiastic writers who leave Christ Church proud of their writing achievements.
Each term, teachers moderate across year groups, cross-phases and cross-Trust to develop their understanding of the assessment of writing. Teachers use progression statements, linked to the National Curriculum to monitor progress and assess the children’s writing.
The Impact:
Pupils become more confident writers and have the ability to plan, draft, edit and publish their own work
Pupils can write effectively for a range of purposes and audiences
Writing is taught in a systematic and progressive way across the school
Pupils enjoy talking about their writing – about its construction, purpose and effect on the reader.
By the end of key stage 2, children have developed a writer’s craft, they enjoy sustained writing and can manipulate language, grammar and punctuation to create effect.
We provide a range of cross-curricular writing opportunities inline with our curriculum that allow the children to have a purpose for their writing and to develop not only their written skills but to strengthen their knowledge and understanding of key learning concepts in other subjects.
