English- Writing
Intent: “Know the Way”
At Thurlbear, we believe that developing a love for writing and a life-long engagement with books and wider literature, is fundamental we aim to provide children with key, transferrable writing skills that build on year on year. Writing is a key life skill and the ability to communicate thoughts, feelings and ideas is fundamental and that is why it features across all the subjects in our Thurlbear curriculum.
At Thurlbear, we understand the intrinsic link between reading and writing and this is why reading is at the heart of our full English curriculum. Quality texts, rich in vocabulary, have been carefully chosen to offer exposure to a broad range of literature, helping us to explore the global elements of our curriculum, whilst also instilling a love for reading in our children and enhancing the quality of their writing outcomes.
By placing these books at the heart of our learning experiences, teachers use these texts as the context for covering the skills and knowledge outlined in the National Curriculum through broad, challenging and inspiring themes.
Our Thurlbear writing curriculum will give children the opportunity to develop:
A love for writing.
An extensive and rich vocabulary, for reading, writing and spoken language.
Fluency and accuracy in expressing their thoughts and emotions, orally and in writing.
The ability to write fluently, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences throughout the curriculum.
The ability to use discussion in order to learn, elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
Competency in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
Excellent transcription skills that ensure their writing is accurately punctuated, spelled correctly, well presented with an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions.
An excellent knowledge of writing techniques to write detailed and interesting texts on a range of topics.
A vibrant imagination which makes readers engage with and enjoy their writing.
Implementation: “Show the Way”
At Thurlbear Primary school we have created an exciting writing curriculum, based on a range of high quality texts, that meet the aims of the national curriculum, engage Thurlbear pupils, and supports their learning experiences across the curriculum. Teachers individualise each planning unit to meet the specific needs of their class. Progression in writing has been mapped out to ensure a rigorous, high quality writing curriculum is provided to children that enables progression.
We follow the Educational Programmes set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework and National curriculum. The programmes of study for writing at Key stages 1 and 2 are constructed similarly to those for reading as defined in the National Curriculum.
Transcription (spelling and handwriting)
Composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing)
At Thurlbear, we have ensured teaching develops pupils’ competence in these two dimensions. In addition, pupils are taught how to plan, revise and evaluate their writing. Our lesson sequences are planned to include elements of each of these dimensions within a creative framework that aim to inspire and foster a love of literature.
Our writing units follow the following sequence:
Hook (Where appropriate)
Exploring the text, explicit teaching of vocabulary and immersion in the features of the genre.
Explicit teaching and practice of writing skills.
Shared/independent planning.
Write independently applying new learning, assessment of new learning.
Editing
Re-drafting (where appropriate)
Publish/perform/share
In English, the writing process is constantly modelled, embedded and deepened throughout the children’s learning journey through the school: We follow the National Curriculum and daily whole class English lessons are taught so that all children have access to age-related skills and knowledge. We understand the importance of developing and broadening vocabulary, so each text is chosen to meet National Curriculum objectives, broaden vocabulary and sentence construction and to meet the needs of the audience and purpose.
Oracy is prioritised in our writing curriculum in order to build an extensive vocabulary for our pupils, to support their understanding, comprehension and ability to communicate articulately. Discussion, questioning and immersing in a range of texts all increase our children’s understanding and prepare them with the knowledge and skills that they need in order to be successful in their writing.
Teachers strive to ensure that writing opportunities are meaningful for the children and that audience and purpose is clear. We believe that children need to develop a secure knowledge-base in writing, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the Thurlbear curriculum. Our writing curriculum has been carefully sequenced, so that each learning experience builds on the knowledge and skills the children learnt previously. The model texts provide increasing levels of challenge, complexity and view points. Teachers use progression documents and ‘Writing for a purpose’ progression notes to support their planning and to ensure that relevant text features and grammatical skills are explored and taught within a unit of work. This ensures progression in genres across the school.
At Thurlbear, our pupils participate in a wide variety of writing experiences across the curriculum to support their writing development. They draw from first hand experiences, cross curricular enrichment opportunities and factual or creative pieces inspired by high quality books or events. We provide children with opportunities to write for a range of different purposes and for enjoyment. We do this by planning a range of writing stimuli that will model and motivate children to write and capture their imagination.
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 writers who take pleasure in the writing process. Teachers expect the highest standards of writing every time a child writes in any subject.
Teachers and teaching assistants support children as necessary to enable them to achieve age related expectations. This may involve a greater level of scaffolding, toolkits, word banks or a greater level of modelling. More-able children are given opportunities to extend their writing in a variety of ways, through showing greater control and by using a higher level of vocabulary and grammar features. Through close observation and monitoring, any children who are at risk of falling behind are provided with timely support and interventions tailored to their specific needs.
We set high expectations and develop ‘Cultural Capital’ by:
Using high quality literature and texts across the curriculum.
Valuing ‘oracy’ and explicitly teaching higher vocabulary.
Using ‘authentic’ high quality resources.
Making links which inspire children and showing that what they are learning at school can lead to interesting, exciting future jobs and careers.
Impact: “Grow the Way”
We want children to feel excited and inspired by our curriculum so that they develop a love of English. We want Thurlbear children to see themselves as authors, storytellers and lifelong readers.
The successful approach to the teaching of writing at Thurlbear Primary School will result in an engaging, knowledge, skill and vocabulary rich writing curriculum, which will equip the children with excellent literacy skills, and nurture their imagination and creativity enabling them to feel empowered to achieve their ambitions now and in the future. Children will be equipped with skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3.
A Thurlbear Child should:
Have developed a love for writing.
Achieve age related expectations in writing at the end of their cohort year.
Have extensive and rich vocabulary, for reading, writing and spoken language.
Be fluent and accurate in expressing their thoughts and emotions, orally and in writing.
Have mastered the ability to write fluently, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences throughout the curriculum.
Be able to use discuss, elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
Be competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
Have developed excellent transcription skills that ensure their writing is accurately punctuated, spelled correctly, well presented with an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions.
Have an excellent knowledge of writing techniques to write detailed and interesting texts on a range of topics.
Be able to organise and structure their writing, which includes a variety of sentence structures.
Have a vibrant imagination which makes readers engage with and enjoy their writing.
We hope that as children move on in their learning journey to further their education and learning, that their creativity, passion for English and high aspirations travel with them and continue to grow and develop as they do.