Writing
Curriculum Intent: Skills
We aim for all pupils to:
- Confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing
- Be given daily opportunities to write and express themselves
- Be able to write, spell and speak at age-appropriate levels and follow age-related expectations
- Acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time in primary school
- Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
- Be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, in part by developing a good, joined, handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school.
- Acquire strategies to enable them to become independent learners in English (spelling rules and patterns when tackling unfamiliar words) and to learn to identify areas for improvement in all pieces of writing, editing their work effectively during and after the writing process
- Not have ceilings on what they can achieve in writing. We do not hold pre-conceptions about any pupils’ ability to make progress
- Develop a love of writing and to take pride in what they produce
Curriculum Implementation
Early Writing in Preschool/Nursery
In Little Daffodils, children are encouraged to mark make with natural materials using sand, shaving foam, paint etc. this is developed through gross and fine motor skills. They will also begin to associate meaning to certain marks or letters that they make, for example ‘that says daddy’, as well as begin to write some of or all their name.
Early Writing in Reception
During writing lessons, the children in Reception will be using Greg Bottrill’s Drawing Club. This focuses on the ‘Golden Blend’ of picture books, tales and animations, it involves a short period of Time Together as a whole class followed by time with children exploring their ideas and creativity, with a focus on drawing. In Spring 2 the children will be using Jane Considine’s ‘The Write Stuff’ with the rest of the school.
Writing in Key Stages 1 and 2 (Summer Term for Reception)
Primary QuEST follows the National Curriculum for grammar, punctuation and spellings and these are taught alongside key writing skills. We use Jane Considine’s The Write Stuff as an approach and a basis for our teaching of writing. The Write Stuff is based on teaching sequences that slide between experience days and sentence stacking lessons. With modelling at the heart, the sentence stacking lessons are broken into bite-sized chunks and taught under the structural framework of The Writing Rainbow. It has been agreed that poetry will not be taught using the Write Stuff Approach.
New staff are trained to use The Write Stuff approach, either through online or face-to-face training. This is then supplemented by staff meetings and support from subject leads or opportunities to observe excellent practice across the Trust.
Long Term Planning
Within each school, the subject lead for English should work with teachers to produce an overview of writing outcomes for each class. Each class will need to complete at least one longer unit per half term using the Write Stuff Approach and one short unit. An example of a school’s long term plan can be seen below.
Short Term Planning
Whilst we have access to resources and planning from the Jane Considine website, schools and teachers should use their discretion in ensuring that units are suitable for the needs of their classes. Units may be written by teachers using high quality texts as a model or adapted from existing planning. Whilst some units may be adapted from existing resources, it is important to ensure that pre-written units are adapted to suit the class, and that the model texts are of appropriate quality and formality.
Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling
Schools in Primary QuEST will need to ensure that they identify the key grammar skills needed for a text type. Grammar lessons are to be taught discretely in English lesson times, with the skills then being reinforced in writing lessons. Specific grammar lessons will be taught either at the start of the unit or as a single lesson within the unit. A grammar progression document, following the National Curriculum outcomes, is followed by teachers to ensure coverage.
“The Write Stuff” also reinforces grammar and punctuation through the use of:
- The FANTASTICs summarise key the ideas of writing.
- The GRAMMARISTICs are a classroom tool that enables the teacher to drive key grammar messages.
- The BOOMTASTICs which help children capture ways of adding drama and poetic devices to writing.
Lesson Structure
Teachers prepare children for writing by modelling the ideas, grammar or techniques of writing. Before starting a unit a high quality text should be introduced to the children through Experience Days. This could be from a class book, written by the teacher or from a high-quality resource.
An individual lesson is based on a 2/3 sentence model, each part broken into two/three chunks. (Class 2 will write in two chunks, Class 3 in two or three chunks and Class 4 in three chunks).
Writing in EYFS
This academic year (23-24), the EYFS team will be trialling using Drawing Club for at least one unit per half term. They will supplement this with shorter units of their own planning. From Summer 1, staff will begin to introduce ‘The Fantastic Foundations’: enabling children to progress to The Write Stuff in Year 1.
Sample Long Term Writing overview – Mixed age classes
Please click here for a copy of our two year writing overview plan across the school
