Writing at Knaresborough St John's CE Primary School
Our Intent
At Knaresborough St. John’s Primary School, we believe that literacy and communication are key life skills and that through the English curriculum, we should help children develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to communicate effectively and creatively with the world at large; through spoken and written language. We intend to provide a language-rich and stimulating environment, where speaking, listening, reading and writing are integrated.
In writing we intend to:
- provide opportunities for pupils to become confident, competent and expressive users of language with a developing knowledge of how it works
- use talk and discussion as a key teaching tool. If a child cannot say it, they cannot write it.
- provide opportunities for pupils to be reflective users of language, able to analyse and evaluate its main features
- provide opportunities for role-play and drama
- provide opportunities to write for a ‘real life’ purpose
- enable children to be aware of audience, purpose and form when writing in a range of styles and genres
- encourage pupils to have fluent and legible handwriting
- develop a love of writing so they develop confidence
- inspire children by using a range of high-quality texts to ignite interest and their imagination that engage all groups of learners
Implementation
Our curriculum at St John’s is implemented through the intertwining of the reading, speaking and listening and writing. Learning is embedded through teaching these skills both discretely and in a wider context across the curriculum.
The writing curriculum is implemented through:
- narrative teaching that is developed through long term plans which ensure full national curriculum coverage and that children are exposed to a variety of high-quality texts and different writing genres and purposes. We use a variety of more modern and classic texts.
- writing is taught through giving a range of purposes for writing. We discuss the purpose and audience when learning about different genres.
- key texts, some with cross- curricular links, are used throughout the year.
- teachers plan writing across the curriculum and include relevant SPaG Olis to embed the learning of key grammatical features in their independent writing.
- writing is taught in a sequence:
COLLECT - CONNECT - CREATE
Collect (Reading, Vocabulary and Drama)
- children explore a text ‘reading as a writer’.
- spoken language is promoted and whole class/ group/ partner discussion takes place. We know this discussion is important for the development of writing and for children to apply a wide range of vocabulary. We follow ‘Communicating the Curriculum- guidance statements’- The Communication Trust to ensure progression in spoken language.
- a WAGOLL may be used to unpick features and skills of a text and to identify the intended purpose and audience.
- drama is used to explore a text further and develop understanding.
- vocabulary is explicitly taught. Teachers focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary. Children are encouraged to ‘magpie’ vocabulary to use in context within their own speaking and writing.
Connect (Planning and Developing)
- children are supported to structure and compose their writing and to organise and develop ideas
- teachers scaffold in a variety of ways, including explicitly modelling constructing sentences/ paragraphs whilst discussing the success criteria with the children. Children are asked for ideas to help develop a model. This model is available as a scaffold for children throughout the Imlesson. Shared and collaborative writing and questioning are also used to support learners. Scaffolding is then slowly taken away to create independent writers.
- Children look at sentence structures, a range of punctuation how vocabulary and language features engage the reader
- children focus on developing ideas, sentence structure, punctuation and vocabulary.
Create (Drafting, Improving and Editing)
- children write, focussing on the purpose and audience.
- teacher feedback is given throughout and after a lesson, highlighting strengths and areas for development.
- children are taught how to edit and improve their own writing; these skills are explicitly taught every year to ensure progress throughout the year and across year groups.
- in KS1; children check their writing makes sense, and check for spelling and grammatical errors. Children in Year 2 are also taught how to improve their writing by making simple additions and revisions.
- as children enter KS2, these skills are built on to ensure writing is cohesive and vocabulary and grammar are being used for the correct purpose.
- children edit and improve their writing using a variety of editing techniques including partner/ whole class feedback, gallery critique and editing flaps.
- writing is then written up and published or performed for the purpose/ audience.
Impact
Our curriculum impact will be judged not only through the academic outcomes, such as SATs, but also the progress children make throughout each year and their time at St John’s. Children should be able to have mastered these skills allowing them to use them independently and in the correct context.
At St John’s; we always strive to improve our practise and learn how to better support our children. We frequently review and evaluate our curriculum to ensure we are meeting our intent. Identified areas for development are incorporated into action plans.
Our Writing progression document can be found here.
The learning objectives for Writing can be found here
The end of year expectations for English can be found below
