Author: Steve Ross

Writing at Church Lane Primary

Intent / At Church Lane we believe that a quality English Writing curriculum should work alongside its reading one. We aim to inspire an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and a habit of reading widely and often. We recognise the importance of nurturing 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. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and who can use discussion to communicate and further their learning. / We believe that children need to develop a secure knowledgebase in English, 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 writing curriculum that provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, transcription, composition and discussion. Teachers use a range of books, novels and multi-model texts as stimuli that are age-appropriate to their year groups to embed content, language and writer’s craft to a range of text types, while ensuring that the curriculum’s spelling, grammar and punctuation are taught, and modelled, through the journey of writing that is appropriate to the text type being taught. We use an approach that uses consistent lesson structures that support vocabulary development; increase knowledge for non-fiction writing; modelling successful vocabulary, grammatical structures and literary devices that can be embedded within the independent stage. Children are afforded opportunities to edit their work to enhance their writing through improved grammatical and vocabulary choices, while proof-reading work, during the planning stage, to ensure spelling and punctuation are both corrected. Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014. / The national curriculum for English writing aims to ensure that all pupils: ● develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information ● acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language ● appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage ● write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences ● use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas ● are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.	Impact / As a result, we have a community of enthusiastic readers and writers who enjoy showcasing their developing English knowledge and skills. They are confident to take risks in their writing, and love to discuss and share their ideas. Our progress and attainment are monitored frequently: pupil progress meetings occur at the end of each term to monitor the progress and attainment of every child in every year group; in-house/school-cluster moderation occurs at the end of each term, ensuring that teacher judgements are consistent and robust using the school’s bespoke assessment criteria for each year group. These assessment grids highlight gaps in composition as well as GPV. Additional summative assessments are deployed to triangulate evidence seen and class and in books.

Early Years Foundation Stage / In the EYFS, we begin with the spoken word, recognising that children need to be able to express themselves clearly, and develop a narrative, before they can begin to record their ideas. Phonics teaching is carefully matched to ability, ensuring that children quickly gain the tools they need for early reading and writing. Our reading books match to phonic ability as we recognise the strong influence that being an effective reader has on being an effective writer. Children are encouraged to write independently from the very start, and we value their emergent writing and squiggles. Adults carefully build on these skills, modelling and encouraging children whilst ensuring that their natural enthusiasm is not dampened. Handwriting is taught during phonics sessions but will also be taught discretely to individuals and small groups as needed. Our aim is to create motivated, enthusiastic writers who reach the Early Learning Goal by the end of their reception year. / ELG 10 Writing: / 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. / Writing Exceeding descriptor: Children can spell phonically regular words of more than one syllable as well as many irregular but high frequency words. They use key features of narrative in their own writing.	‘The Write Stuff’ Approach / At Church Lane we use ‘The Write Stuff’ approach to teach English writing. This approach has modelling at the very heart of it. Modelling vocabulary, grammatical structures and poetic devices, allowing the children to see taught concepts in action. / Teaching Sequence / In the teaching sequence, there are three different types of lessons : writing lessons (Sentence Stacking lessons), experience lessons and independent writing lessons. The teaching sequence for each unit may be different depending upon the content, but this is outlined at the start of each unit. A writing lessons consists of short bursts of teaching and follow the below structure: / The Three Zones of Writing / Writing is taught through three different perspectives, or lenses. / The children know these as the FANTASTICS, GRAMMARISTICS and BOOMTASTICS. These are displayed in every classroom and act as a visual These act as a guide for the children as they write. They are intentionally introduced across key stages to ensure our children leave us with a wealth of techniques, flair and grammatical understanding to communicate effectively in written format wherever their future takes them.	Grammar and Punctuation / Grammar and Punctuation / Grammar and punctuation are taught through a specific genre and within its journey of writing and through teacher modelled writing, while following the statuary requirements for each year group’s programme of study. / Spelling / KS1 / In KS1, the children learn spelling predominantly through their phonic sessions, where the children learn to segment the words into graphemes. Additionally spelling patterns, as well as prefixes and suffixes, are taught during English lessons. Additionally, the children have spelling cards that are highlighted in their phonics sessions and from the statutory lists. / KS2 / Spelling is taught for approximately one hour a week. We use Spelling Shed as our primary spelling scheme. Teachers highlight misspelled words in their written work across the curriculum, while learning the statutory lists and topic words throughout their KS2 journey.

The Writing Rainbow
A visual guide for the ideas, tools and devices needed to be a successful writer