Writing at Sacred Heart
“You can make anything by writing.”
C.S Lewis
Intent
Sacred Heart Primary School encourages all pupils to develop a love for the English language through the spoken and written word.
Mastery over language empowers pupils to communicate effectively, creatively and imaginatively, as well as allowing children engagement with the world at large. We believe that all pupils should be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their speaking and writing and discover that through their reading, others can communicate with them. Our aim is for children to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. We want pupils to 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. We believe that all pupils should 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. All good writers refine and edit their writing over time, so we want children to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement in all pieces of writing, editing their work effectively during and after the writing process. We do not put ceilings on what pupils can achieve in writing and we do not hold pre-conceptions about any pupils’ ability to make progress. We want children to acquire an interest and excitement in words and their meanings, enriching their expressive language use and enhancing their vocabulary. Our goal is to inspire children’s imagination and ignite their curiosity, opening the door to a lifelong enjoyment of literature and language.
Implementation
Within the Early Years Foundation Stage, writing is taught through the ‘Communication and Language’ and ‘Literacy’ areas of learning. The ‘Physical Development’ strand also ensures that the children are provided with plentiful opportunities to build up the muscle strength they need to enable them to hold a pencil with control. Children in Reception are taught spelling, and the conventions of a sentence through daily Sounds Write phonics lessons. Through the use of our checkpoints and our carefully planned provision, children in EYFS will develop the required skills to ensure they are Year One ready.
From Year 1, we begin each year by teaching the children the Place Value of Punctuation and Grammar. This ensures that they have a strong basis for their learning in the upcoming year, providing a deep and thorough understanding of what makes a sentence. This allows them to build on this learning throughout the year, and apply their knowledge of grammar and punctuation to correct their writing, and write towards age related expectations.
We use Talk for Writing strategies to support the teaching of writing from EYFS through to Lower Key Stage 2. Through this, children are given the opportunity to learn and internalise the language of different writing genres, and orally rehearse texts repeatedly before writing them down. Children in upper Key Stage 2 may still use some Talk for Writing strategies to ensure they are still able to orally rehearse, but as texts become longer and more complicated in structure, this is not applied to the whole piece of text. Other strategies such as dictogloss and paragraph reconstruction are used so that children have repeated oral exposure to the language of different texts types, which allows them to emulate this in their own writing.
Across school, we have a bank of quality model texts which are written towards age related expectations. These ensure that children are repeatedly exposed to genres as they move throughout the school, but as they are written towards age related expectations, they become more challenging in their vocabulary, punctuation, and sentence structure. Where the children have sufficient background knowledge that has been taught through other lessons such as history and science, the texts are written to provide cross curricular links. This gives children the opportunity to share and embed their knowledge of topics such as World War II or the digestive system, while focussing on the literacy skills they need to communicate this knowledge effectively. Other texts are written based on stories children have read, or studied during reading lessons.
We teach English as whole class lessons, so that all children have access to the age-related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum. Within lessons, teachers and teaching assistants target support for children who need it to enable them to achieve at an age-related level wherever possible. This may involve a greater level of scaffolding and access to additional support materials such as word banks or a greater level of modelling. High attaining children are given opportunities to extend their writing in a variety of ways, including through showing greater control in their writing, a deeper understanding of the impact that their writing has on the reader and by using a higher level of vocabulary and grammar features.
From Reception to Year 2, spelling is taught through daily Sounds Write lessons. From Year 1, spellings are also taught according to the rules and words contained in Appendix 1 of the English National Curriculum. Where possible, spelling rules are taught in context through the model texts used. Where the spelling rules are not covered within the model texts, spelling is taught discretely.
Grammar and punctuation knowledge and skills are taught through English lessons. Teachers plan to teach the required skills through the genres of writing that they are teaching, linking it to the genre to make it more connected with the intended writing outcome. Teachers sometimes focus on particular grammar and punctuation skills as stand alone lessons if they feel that the class need additional lessons to embed and develop their understanding or to consolidate skills.
We use Letter – join to teach handwriting from Year 1. By the end of Key Stage 2 all pupils should have the ability to produce fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy joined-up handwriting, and to understand the different forms of handwriting used for different purposes. Pupils experience coherence and continuity in the learning and teaching of handwriting across all school years and are encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their work. For children who experience handwriting difficulties due to fine motor development, including those who are left-handed and those with special educational needs, the appropriate additional support will be put into place in the form of interventions. Letter-join’s Lesson Planners all include activities for extra practise.
Children will be assessed using the National Curriculum objectives for their year group throughout the year, and summative assessments will be entered into Arbor each term. Teachers will use their professional judgement to determine whether a child is working within age-related expectations, above or below. They will base their judgements on the quality of writing that pupils produce at the end of each unit, and determine to what extent pupils have met the agreed success criteria for that genre of writing. Teachers will refer to the Teacher Assessment frameworks in Y2 and Y6.
Through our long term writing plan, there is complete coverage of the National Curriculum.
Please click below to view our long term plans for writing:
To see how our curriculum drivers are embedded in writing, click below.
Please see below for the Place Value of Punctuation and Grammar overviews:
Have a look at Talk for Writing in action by clicking the links below:
Year 1/2 ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’
