Writing

Vision

At Scarning Primary School we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and discussion. We recognise the importance of building a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. Alongside reading and writing we value the importance of good oracy skills and the impact these can have on reading and writing. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and to be able to use discussion effectively and confidently to communicate and further their learning. We believe that children need to develop a secure knowledge-base in Literacy, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. We believe that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high-quality education and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society.

Implementation

These aims are embedded across our English lessons and the wider curriculum. We have a rigorous and well organised English curriculum that provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. English lessons are for the most part linked to topics for the term/half-term or linked to specific texts/genres. This helps us to ensure that cross curricular links with concurrent topic work are woven into our programme of study and that children get the opportunities to write in role as experts within other subjects. Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014; including ensuring our children acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language, an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage, an ability to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences, to be able to use discussion being able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas and are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

At Scarning we fully believe in the power of ‘a good book’ to inspire our writers. We use a wide variety of quality texts from different genres to engage the children and to expose them to high quality, rich language. Texts that are rich in high quality language are chosen to widen our children’s vocabulary and enable them to use such words effectively in their own writing. We believe it is important that children have an understanding of the relationships between words, word meaning and the etymology and morphology of words. Grammar is taught both explicitly and within context across the curriculum, allowing for revisiting and embedding and ensuring that children are provided with the opportunity to apply the knowledge of grammatical structures and terms into their own writing. Phonics and spelling in key stage one follows the programme of Supersonic Phonic Friends with key stage two following the Twinkl progression of learning. We recognise the importance of both composition and transcription within our curriculum and explicitly teach cursive handwriting with additional revisiting and intervention alongside regular modelling in lessons. Creative writing is embedded in all year groups and texts are chosen to inspire and engage children in writing within all genres. All pupils engage in a fortnightly ‘Big Write’ which sees them apply their creative writing skills independently. Metacognitive strategies such as planning, reviewing and editing are modelled, taught and practised explicitly so that pupils develop as true authors in their own rights.

At Scarning Primary we recognise the importance of building a love for reading and writing and provide a wealth of enrichment opportunities; from celebrating good writing in assemblies and in display, providing writing competitions/celebrations, links with the local high schools for reading quizzes, buddy group (across age ranges) reading and writing activities, In addition to this we also hold a series of lectures for KS2 that cover the Scarning Concept Threads and give the children a chance to write creatively around important topics of discussion. Whole school debates and enquiry questions within the humanities also give the children a platform for public speaking and decision making.

Assessment

Assessments in writing are ongoing throughout the year. The teachers encourage self-editing to improve writing and this is developed as the children move through the school. Next steps are given through marking feedback and these are then responded to by the children (supported and independently) in order to improve their writing.

§   Statutory Assessment

§  Year 2 – children are assessed in writing as part of the end of KS1 SATs.

§  Year 6 – children are formally assessed in writing as part of the end of KS2 SATs.

§   In-school Assessments

Point In Time Assessments (PITA) judgements are made 3 times a year in all year groups to inform whether the child is working at expected levels, above or below. This informs interventions and progress is monitored.

§   Informal (Formative) Assessments

Teachers continuously assess children’s attainment and progress during lessons and especially use the evidence from independent Big Writes.

As a result of this we have a community of enthusiastic writers who enjoy showcasing their developing literacy knowledge and skills across the whole of the curriculum. They are confident to take risks in their reading and writing, and love to discuss and share their ideas. Our pupils are confident in sharing their own ideas aloud and are able to appreciate and challenge other people’s ideas in a constructive and supportive way.