Writing

At Holme Junior and Infant School, children enjoy writing for real and meaningful purposes and audiences across a range of different genres. Our writing approach is centered around carefully chosen quality core texts, which expose children to a wealth of enriched vocabulary in which they feel confident in applying across a range of contexts. Through our clear and progressive sequence of teaching writing, children are provided with the knowledge, skills and vocabulary to produce beautifully published writing of a high standard.

Intent

The intent behind our approach to Writing is to:

• ·Provide a clear sequence of teaching writing, building on children’s prior knowledge and skills, making meaningful connections with reading.  
• Develop a love for writing whereby children take pride in their work.
• Provide real and exciting writing opportunities covering a range of different genres.
• Expose children to enriched vocabulary, nurturing children to enjoy using language across different contexts and in their own lives.

Implementation

Our English approach is implemented through our writing cycle approach (Explore, Skills, Plan, Write, Edit).

Within the ‘Explore’ stage, children explore and learn the skills of writing through exploring a high-quality text. Children are exposed to high quality WAGOLL's (What A Good One Looks Like), setting the expectation of the final outcome and allowing children to identify key features of different genres, exploring the purpose behind why they have been used for an intended audience and purpose. Children also collect and generate high quality vocabulary, as they 'magpie' expert words and phrases used in quality texts.

In the ‘Skills’ stage of our learning, teachers explicitly model and support the composition of writing, manipulating the collected content into sentences using grammar skills from the national curriculum. Through guided and shared practice, children construct sentences and develop their skills, continuously improving their work through our editing sessions.

Finally, children ‘plan, draft and edit’ their final piece, after drafting sections or paragraphs of text using the writing skills taught within the skills phase. Children write by editing and improving their drafts before publishing a final piece for their intended purpose and audience. This produces a high-quality published piece of writing with all feedback embedded.

Impact

Assessment

Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it.

• Assessment for learning is used daily within class to identify children needing support.
• End of genre assessment is used to identify gaps and key teaching points for next sequences.
• Summative assessment is used:
  • every term to assess progress in writing towards year group expectations, to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed, to identify any children needing additional support and to plan the Keep-up support that they need.
  • by SLT and scrutinised through the School assessment tracker, to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of children and so that any additional support for teachers can be put into place.