Writing
Writing Curriculum Intent
To provide an writing curriculum that will enable our students to be successful writers who are able to develop and apply their skills in all areas of the school curriculum and the wider world. Pupils will develop a love of writing through weekly writing for pleasure sessions, using their creativity to discuss and share their ideas. Pupils will learn how to plan, edit and evaluate their own writing. They will also develop an awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and a wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. They will also have regular opportunities to use and apply speaking and listening skills in English lessons and across the wider curriculum.
Curriculum maps
Writing Curriculum Overview
Writing Curriculum Overview 2023-2024.docx.pdfGrammar Curriculum Overview
Grammar curriculum overview .docx.pdfGrammar Skills Progression
GPS Progression.pdfSequencing and Progression
The curriculum map is designed in such a way that children are able to build on their prior learning. Key genres are revisited to enable children to build up an understanding of features and vocabulary. Core grammar, spelling and punctuation are revised each year to enable a solid understanding.
Children's knowledge of grammar, punctuation, spelling and composition is built upon throughout each year and across the year groups.
Progression in Narrative Writing (Reception - Year 6)
An example of how children are able to build on their prior learning can be seen through the sample of writing below:
Reception
ReceptionIn Early Years, children use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also write some irregular common words. They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible.
Year 2
Year 2By Year 2, children are able to write a simple coherent narrative after discussion with the teacher. They use past and present tense mostly correct and consistently, use co-ordination such as or, and or but and spell many KS1 common exception words correctly. They are able to make choices about what vocabulary to use and explain the reasons behind their choices.
Year 4
Year 4By Year 4, children are beginning to independently apply their knowledge to write a range of narratives using a consistent and appropriate structure. They write narratives with a coherent plot and a clear beginning, middle and end. They are able to create more detailed settings, characters and plot to engage the reader and can consistently organise their writing into paragraphs around a theme. They can use inverted commas mostly accurately and their word choices, including use of adverbs and adjectives, are becoming more adventurous.
Year 6
Year 6 Shackleton memoirBy Year 6, children are able to select language that shows awareness of the reader, such as the use of first person in the above memoir. They are able to integrate dialogue into narratives to convey character and advance the action, and can select vocabulary and grammatical structures that reflect with the writing requires. They use a range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs and are beginning to use the range of punctuation taught at Key Stage 2 mostly correctly, for example brackets and ellipses. They consistently make adventurous vocabulary and sentence structure choices, including the use of onomatopoeia and other figurative language.
How we teach writing at Noel Park
In the Early Years, children progress through the different stages of early writing through a variety of adult-led and child initiated mark making activities within the continuous provision and carpet input sessions. Children will progress from initial mark making activities towards the application of their phonics knowledge in purposeful writing activities, such as writing letters, recording recipes or making design plans and instructions in the construction area. By the end of Reception, children will be writing short sentences with words with known sound-letter correspondence and components of correct sentence structure.
From Year 1-6, children have daily, hour long writing lessons designed and sequenced to enable progression of their compositional and transcription skills. Each new unit begins with a cold task which identifies the individual starting points for the children, with each writing unit planned to address misconceptions and teach the skills required for the genre. Every unit builds towards a final masterpiece, during which children are given the opportunity to innovate alongside demonstrating their knowledge and understanding of the skills. Key genres are revisited to enable children to build up an understanding of features and vocabulary. Core grammar, spelling and punctuation are revised each year to enable a solid understanding.
Within each lesson, there is dedicated time for the children to apply the grammar, punctuation and spelling skills learnt in their grammar lessons to their writing. By the end of KS2, children will be secondary-ready, independently able to apply their compositional, grammatical, spelling and punctuation learning to a variety of text types as well as confident in reflectively and purposefully editing and improving their own writing. Children will have been exposed to a variety of high-quality literature and will be able to apply their understanding of reading skills to understand these. They will also be able to discuss their own literary preferences and opinions.
At Noel Park, we aim to promote a love of writing across the curriculum. Weekly creative writing lessons, separate from the rest of the writing curriculum, provide opportunities for children to use their imagination and creativity to respond to a range of stimuli. From videos and pictures to soundscapes, children are encouraged to choose what they would like to write, making their own stylistic and linguistic choices whilst also experimenting with new vocabulary and sentence structures. Dedicated writing for pleasure days and events such as our Black History writing exhibition give children further opportunities to write for a purpose and share their love of writing with others.
Autumn 2023-2024 Writers of the Term
Year 1
Fig
Lana for all her efforts and much improved handwriting
Date
Eva for her use of amazing adjectives.
Elm
BoYi for his impressive and independent piece of writing including great sentence starters and interesting adjectives. Well done!
Year 2
Guava
Hana for writing a very suspenseful story based on Little Red Riding Hood. She created her own exciting character with a terrifying villain! I was on the edge of my seat reading this work!
Hazel
Ronya for consistently using powerful adjectives to make her writing exciting and interesting. We have been writing in first person and Ronya made herself sound exactly like Little Red Riding Hood! Well done Ronya!
Iroko
Sahra has made excellent progress in her writing. Her work is alway neat, tidy and easy to read and she always uses expressive language in her writing. It is always a pleasure to read her work.
Year 3
Mango
The writer of the half term in Mango goes to Anita for consistently creating incredible pieces of writing. Anita has excellent ideas and always amazes me with her wide range of vocabulary. Her fantasy writing masterpiece was a pleasure to read and all of the year 3 teachers loved the ending!
Lime
Ulla really impressed me in the detail she used in her masterpiece with a fantasy element. Ulla not only tried very hard with her handwriting but the descriptive language really showed me how much she has learnt this term. Her story was excellently written and was enjoyable to read. Keep it up sunshine!
Kiwi
Well done Mila for your exceptional writing. Both your masterpieces this half term have shown great understanding of the topics covered - your fantasy fiction was well thought out and interesting to read and your persuasive letter was full of persuasive devices. Well done!
Year 4
Olive
Wyatt for outstanding writing all half term, embedding imaginative and unique ideas within his work while maintaining a high standard of grammar, punctuation and spelling. Your use of language devices is awesome Wyatt, keep it up!
Nutmeg
Anqing for really challenging herself to include; a range of punctuation, adjectives, verbs and expanded noun phrases, when writing her masterpiece quest story. Excellent!!
Palm
Sarah K for a phenomenal masterpiece that showcases exceptional features of a quest story. Your cohesion and author’s voice exceeded my expectations. I am so proud of you!
Year 5
Rosewood
Cairo- he blew me away with his amazing portal story! Cairo used a variety of figurative language to make his story fantastic! Well done Cairo!
Quince
Alishba for her outstanding portal story! She has used an incredible number of figurative language techniques and created a very interesting story. She has also made a great use of punctuation in her story, well done Alishba!
Year 6
Tamarind
Ariana - for her absolute love and enjoyment of writing. Ariana shows a great passion and natural talent for writing and has produced some brilliant pieces since she started at Noel Park. Well done!
Lotus
Trina - for taking great pride in her English work. Her handwriting is beautiful and Trina has shown great creativity when writing her adapted fairytale.
Summer 2022-2023 Writers of the Term
Year 1
Fig
Monro for making such progress with her handwriting and content.
Date
Ronya for showing exceptional progress
Elm
Sreenika for her wonderful, independent story writing. Well done!
Year 2
Guava
Berjin for making incredible progress in her writing throughout the half term. She has also managed to earn herself a pen licence within this time.
Hazel
Charlotte for always pushing her limits in English. She is able to use her writing in a beautiful way to express herself, using powerful words and showcasing her determination in every piece of writing.
Iroko
Danielle for her positive attitude towards her writing! She has shown hard work and determination over the course of this half term in particular.
Year 3
Mango
Leanna for her overwhelmingly positive attitude towards her writing, always wanting to improve and striving for the best possible presentation- well done!
Lime
Wyatt for his fantastic effort in always trying to improve his writing and for continuously having a positive attitude when it comes to writing.
Kiwi
Malanie for your amazing proofreading and editing - you have a very determined approach to your work and have been able to identify where you can improve your work and you never give up! Amazing quality.
Year 4
Nutmeg
Logan for his improved effort and attentiveness in his writing, being able to articulate himself beautifully during discussion and writing - allowing him to get his imaginative ideas on to paper!
Palm
Ayla for fantastic writing ideas and using high level vocabulary in all her work. Well done Ayla!
Year 5
Rosewood
Riley for continuing to improve his attitude and overall progress in writing, especially the use of vocabulary and different sentence structures. He has become more confident in expressing his ideas, writing and editing them. Excellent!
Quince
Alex for pushing his limits in his cold task! I was really impressed by his high engagement and use of newspaper features
Year 6
Tamarind
Zayne for an excellent attitude towards his writing this term, particularly in terms of handwriting. Zayne has made excellent progress and as a result produces some wonderful writing!
Willow
Bryan - his writing has really improved since the beginning of Year 6. His use of powerful descriptions grip the reader's attention and we are always left wanting to hear more. Not only is he an incredible writer, his delivery and presentation is a pleasure to listen to.
Lotus
Romina for amazing effort and improvement in her writing since the start of Year 6. At the beginning of the year, Romina found it challenging write at length but she is now more confident in creating stories, generating ideas and writing longer pieces of work.
Writing Lessons in Action!
