Writing
At Calstock and Stoke Federation, we aim to give our children a writing curriculum, which enables them to become confident, creative and independent writers who are well able to articulate their own ideas. We support our children to develop transferable skills, which they can use across the wider curriculum and throughout their lives. We use educational visits, high quality literature, film, art and music as stimuli for writing which links learning to real life experience and provides a contextualised, meaningful curriculum. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of oracy and be able to use discussion to develop their learning. The skill of fluency in speaking, writing and reading, empowers children and allows them to be effective communicators in a modern world.
Writing intent statement
At Calstock and Stoke Climsland Federation, we strive to help our children develop into articulate and imaginative communicators, who are well equipped with the skills they need to become life-long learners; English learning is key in this.
We aim to ensure all of our children develop a genuine love of language and the written word, through a text-based approach; this links closely to the way we teach reading, as the text that we use in writing lessons, where possible, is the same text as the one that we use in reading lessons.
By focusing on four core purposes of writing: to entertain, to inform, to persuade and to discuss, we ensure that children develop an understanding of how widely writing is used in everyday life and, therefore, how important and useful the skills are that they are learning.
Our intentions in writing are for children to:
Write for a purpose
See themselves as real writers
Take ownership of their writing
See writing as an interesting and enjoyable process
Acquire the ability to organise and plan their written work
Writing Implementation
In reception, children write daily. ‘Hold a sentence’ writing forms part of RWInc lessons. Composition is completed during small group writing sessions.
In Key Stages 1 and 2, children:
follow the national curriculum through a text-mapped curriculum devised by the school.
have four 45 minute writing sessions each week.
Each writing cycle runs over three weeks and includes the following steps:
- Immersion (linked to the class novel): discussing and investigating the features of the genre and generating ideas for writing.
- Text interrogation and shared writing: focus on grammar, punctuation and spelling.
- Co-construct: shared and modelled write with discussion around writing similar to focus genre with an emphasis on structure, vocabulary and grammar.
- Summarising and sequencing storyboards, maps, research and notes.
- Planning: story mapping and text organisation
- Drafting: independent writing based on planning and shared writing.
- Editing: focusing on the technical aspects of writing.
- Redrafting: rewrite to develop authorial voices and language choices.
Within each cycle, children in Key Stage 1 initially write a carefully scaffolded retelling of the core text, or modelled non-fiction piece. In the second phase of the cycle they have the opportunity to innovate their own version.
In Key Stage 2, children work towards completing a complete example of the text type studied with a short focused interim piece (e.g. an introduction or a dilemma paragraph) completed in the first phase of the cycle.
Impact
Our text led curriculum establishes an environment of creativity, motivating and engaging children in their learning of English. Curriculum books show a range of learning outcomes with rich examples of written work in a variety of contexts. Children’s exposure to inspiring and diverse fictional and non-fictional texts fosters a love of reading and allows them to become fluent readers and confident writers.
Classroom talk is essential to children's learning, progress and enjoyment, and can have a positive impact on the clarity and quality of their writing skills. By focusing on oracy strategies, we can also help to develop students' self-confidence and self-esteem. As part of regular lesson provision in English, pupils will be involved in discussion, speeches, presentations, debate, critical thinking, role play and drama based activities. These vehicles for oracy foster collaborative learning skills and encourage all pupils to be confident in articulation and conversation, empowering them to have equal confidence and skill as writers.
Every half term, the children will complete two independent formal writing assessments. This is where they will be expected to showcase the grammar and writing styles they have been developing over the course of each half term.
An overview of the federation’s extended writing curriculum can be found here:
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Writing Curriculum Overview | [pdf 796KB] |
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Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
The teaching of spelling, punctuation and grammar is embedded within reading and writing lessons so that children learn these skills and use them in context. Explicit teaching of grammar and punctuation in meaningful contexts is a core component of our writing cycle. Our curriculum is carefully sequenced to ensure that children build a secure understanding of grammatical features and learn to apply them effectively in a range of contexts.
However, spelling is also taught explicitly in each year group. In Key Stage 1, spelling is a focus of Phonics teaching, which is taught using the Read Write Inc materials. In Key Stage 2, children follow the Read Write Inc Spelling programme.
Handwriting
We teach children to use a continuous cursive style of handwriting using the Nelson scheme. They start with individual letter formation and correct pencil grip in EYFS. Children begin to join when their letter formation is secure; usually, from the end of Year 1. Children are expected to produce neat, joined, legible handwriting at all times.
Reading, Writing and Spelling Progression of Skills in English
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English Progression | [pdf 373KB] |
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