Intent

At Stallingborough CE Primary School, we understand that writing is an essential skill and we want our children to become enthusiastic, confident writers. Through our Writing curriculum we seek to lay the foundations for children to flourish in the future as we support pupils to become lifelong learners. We aim to help our children develop their writing skills in a variety of ways:

 

• Introducing and deconstructing a wide variety of model texts, covering a range of genres
• Exposing children to, and teaching, high level vocabulary
• Giving children opportunities to write for authentic purposes and across a range of subjects
• Ensuring children have opportunities to talk about and plan their writing
• Ensuring spelling and grammar is specifically taught, enabling children to develop a solid understanding and the ability to use spelling rules and grammar accurately
• Giving children opportunities to evaluate, revise and edit their own work as well as offer feedback on the work of their peers
• Supporting children to take pride in their work and its presentation, including their handwriting.

 

It is our intent to provide high quality learning experiences in order to develop pupil’s competence in both transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing). They will be able to write down their ideas fluently, spelling most words accurately by knowing the relationship between sounds and letters in words. The development of pupil’s composition skills will ensure they can form, articulate and communicate ideas, organise them coherently for a reader, showing awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. We aim to encourage pupils to develop fluent, legible, joined handwriting.

 

Implementation

Ready, Steady, Write!

At our school we have adopted Ready, Steady, Write to bring clarity and consistency to the mechanics of writing and to enable our children to write effectively and coherently. As a school, children from Year 1 to Year 6 learn to write through this programme. It is a fun, creative and rigorous approach to develop children’s writing. This approach allows children to apply basic skills, vocabulary and grammar knowledge to write effective sentences, which are full of impact and keep the reader interested.

In Ready, Steady, Write approach to writing, the children explore high level, rich vocabulary and are taught grammar in context through different writing lessons:

Immerse – Children are immersed in the vehicle text

Analyse – Children analyse the vehicle text

Plan – Children plan their own writing, drawing on their knowledge of the vehicle text

Write – Children write a draft and then edit their writing independently

Each writing lesson starts with a sentence starter activity (ensuring children practice the basics of sentence writing every day) focussing on recapping and retrieval of prior knowledge and key writing kills.  

Early Years Foundation Stage

Early writing in the foundation stage begins with mark making. When the children begin Read Write Inc phonics, they are taught correct letter formation. The children learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds with the help of fun phrases, learn to write words by using Fred Talk and learn to build sentences by practising them aloud before they write.

Drawing Club

In FS2, pupils are also taught writing through the use of ‘Drawing Club’, an approach that immerses children in a world of imagination, whilst also enriching their language skills and developing their fine motor skills. Through Drawing Club, children are exposed to a range of picture books, tales and animations which they then use as a stimulus to explore their own creativity, leading to high levels of engagement and joy in writing.

Ready Steady Spell

Our spelling curriculum is designed to provide a broad and balanced education that meets the needs of all children. We follow the award-recognised Ready Steady Spell by Literacy Counts to ensure that all pupils become fluent, accurate spellers. Our spelling curriculum is research-informed and impact-proven, helping children secure the essential skills and strategies they need to spell confidently across the curriculum. Through engaging activities, consistent teaching routines and regular opportunities to revisit prior learning, we help children move spelling knowledge into their long-term memory. Our aim is to build confident writers who are equipped with the tools they need to communicate clearly and effectively. Spelling is taught in a clear and systematic way, with regular reviews and assessments. Additional support is provided through Ready Steady Spell: Go sessions, which offer targeted intervention for pupils who need further consolidation. 

 

Impact

Children are excited to share their writing with peers and adults alike: they are proud of the writing they produce! They are equipped with a strong command of the written word. They will amass a varied vocabulary which they can use across the curriculum. They are able to spell accurately and use correct grammar in their work.   Pupils write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. Children will move onto the next steps of their learning journey with a solid repertoire of writing under their belts, and a sound understanding of the grammar of writing. They will have well-exercised imaginations, which will allow them to express themselves eloquently as they flourish beyond Stallingborough CE Primary School.

 

We measure impact through:

• Summative assessment
• Discussions with pupils
• Observations of learning
• Lesson observation and feedback from the subject leader
• Analysis of writing books and written topic work
• Pupil voice