English - Writing
“Writing is the painting of the voice” ― Volitare
Intent
At All Saints’, we hope that every child will become knowledgeable about the different reasons in which writers are moved to write: to teach, persuade or influence, entertain, paint with words, reflect and to make a record. Overtime, children will develop as writers and this will help them to fully engage with their community as they develop their communication further. Children will be encouraged to share their knowledge, opinions and imaginative creativity, and throughout their years at All Saints’, we intend for them to understand how their choice of words and how they write them can influence and persuade other people.
Over time, we hope the children will develop a love of learning of how to write independently, fluently and confidently. Children should become increasingly knowledgeable about how writing can impact a variety of audiences in different ways. Equally, children should learn to use grammar and punctuation to aid the reader’s ability to read their writing with ease and as they intended. Throughout their years at All Saints’, children will learn how to work within, and contribute to, a community of writers, whereby they aim to choose specific vocabulary (including choosing synonyms for words if it feels appropriate).
In addition, we intend to include the use of drama and retelling stories to inspire high quality writing. We intend to share a range of high-quality written texts and visual texts, such as video clips, to enhance pupils’ learning and develop their comprehension. We intend to give children opportunities to write effectively for a range of purposes and audiences and to teach them how to create atmosphere and use dialogue to show what a character is like, and advance the action within a piece of writing. We believe that by teaching children to become life-long independent motivated writers, we are providing them with the most powerful cultural capital you can have – an ability to turn your thoughts, knowledge and opinions into powerful writing.
Implementation
We focus on making sure that children understand what and why they are writing by providing opportunities to write about an experience, or about a subject that they are familiar with. Often children further up the school are given the opportunity to choose what they want to write within the parameters of a text type that they’ve been taught in the Writing lesson. For example, when writing a science fiction narrative, the children are asked to keep some elements the same, but they can change other aspects allowing space for creativity.
Teachers model the writing process to make explicit the steps in writing and children are encouraged to openly share their ideas. Grammar and punctuation is modelled throughout the teaching of a specific genre rather than it being taught as a separate area. Crucially, teachers at All Saints’ are aware that writing momentum is important and so time is planned into each lesson to allow the children to practice the craft of writing. Writing is a craft that is developed through repeated practice and rehearsal and therefore, children are given the opportunity to plan out their writing, write their pieces and time to read back and edit. Teachers model using a range of punctuation and devices to build cohesion in a way that shows flair and imagination. Furthermore, teachers will model how to regularly review and improve their writing through editing. Children will be provided time to regularly review and improve their writing with opportunities to plan their final extended piece of writing for their Writing Assessment Book (Portfolio) once a half term.
As a school we have trialled many schemes, and we have come to the conclusion together that we needed to adapt these schemes to suit our cohort of children. Therefore, lessons often piece together skills and methods from a variety of sources to suit the children and the teacher’s own personal teaching style.
Writing is teacher assessed, and independent evidence is collected half termly for every pupil (fortnightly during the Spring Term in Year Six). Writing Assessment Grids are ticked off after every piece of writing, to keep track of progress, find gaps to target and move pupils forward. The Writing Assessment Grid will also show an overview for which objectives were met and areas that need to be revisited in the following year. Termly cross-moderation of writing takes place in staff meetings and inter-school moderation. Additional support for moderating pupils’ writing takes place during phase PPA meetings. Equally this year, the Local Authority have provided writing moderation courses for non-statutory year groups which a member of the teaching team has attended.
Our children leave All Saints’ knowing that writing is a tool that can be used to not only express creativity, but also to show others how they can see things differently to another person. As children develop as writers, they are encouraged more to write personal responses to subjects and to use their knowledge, opinions, thoughts and their own imaginings, and this experience can help them to understand that everyone sees the word uniquely.
Impact
Children at All Saints’ will have a wealth of writing in their Literacy and Writing Assessment books, but also in other subject books from their whole time in school. They will also be able to reflect on their own learning, and express these feelings through their writing. They will understand that the writing process is a carefully thought-out process, which involves planning, creating, proofreading and editing. Children will have the ability to voice their opinion confidently and fairly.
Teacher’s focused marking of punctuation and allowing children the time to edit, will ensure that children correct mistakes and are aware that the writing process isn’t always the quickest as it is important to read their work back and carefully check. Receiving this writing teaching and having these experiences, will ensure that our children achieve well in national assessments. In addition to all of this, we would like our children to know how to write for pure pleasure and recreation, and we want them to feel a sense of joy and accomplishment in sharing their work with others, especially in a world where technology is taking over and the amount that people write by hand is decreasing.
At All Saints’ Primary School, all pupils make excellent progress in English. This starts from with a firm foundation in EYFS, with 60% of pupils of our 2022-2023 cohort achieving the Early Learning Goal in Writing. Our end of KS1 assessments for 2022-2023 show that the percentage of pupils achieving expected outcomes Writing is 65%.
The vast majority of our older pupils are equipped with the English skills they need to succeed at secondary school when they leave us. This is reflected in our end of KS2 assessments for 2022-2023, with 72% of pupils meeting expected outcomes in Writing, and 80% meeting expected outcomes in GPS. We are proud of the progress the children in our school make during their primary school careers with us.