Writing
Subject Leaders: Kat Nash
Our Curriculum Intent
At St. John’s we strongly believe that children should enjoy their learning in order to become enthusiastic and independent readers and writers. We aim to inspire an appreciation of, and a habit of, reading widely and often. We recognise the importance of creating a school where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts and audiences. We want to inspire children to be confident in the arts of speaking, listening and drama and who can use discussion and acting to develop their
learning. These aims are embedded across our English lessons and the wider curriculum.
We want every pupil in our care to communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through writing confidently. As is outlined in the aims of National Curriculum 2014, we want our learners to ‘write clearly, accurately and coherently,
adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences’.
We have high expectations of our pupils and expect them to spell new words by effectively applying patterns and rules they learn. We also aim for learners to understand and then effectively apply grammar skills into their writing.
We feel that refining and editing writing over time is an instrumental part of the writing process and teach pupils to do this independently in their growth as writers.
The approach we adopt to teach writing is based upon Jane Considine’s book ‘The Write Stuff’. High quality demonstration writing is the basis of this model whereby children are explicitly taught and shown how to craft the ideas, grammar and techniques of writing. This leads on to children writing independently in the unit, applying their skills and showcasing what they have learnt. Throughout the learning process, children’s writing is celebrated and displayed in classrooms.
'The Write Staff' divides the 'secretarial' aspects of writing into three zones of writing - 'Fantastics', 'Grammaristics' and 'Boombastics' within which she identifies individual aspects such similies, question marks and feelings.
Spellings are taught according to the rules and words contained in Appendix 1 of the English National Curriculum.
Handwriting is not taught as part of the write stuff explicitly and taught from a separate scheme in handwriting lessons through the week.
Feedback and marking is completed, where possible, within the lesson or as a close to the lesson as is feasible. All marking and feedback is given in line with our marking and feedback policy.
Assessment is an ongoing element of the teaching and learning of writing and takes place constantly: through the verbal feedback children receive during lessons; the written feedback following lessons and the questioning used to ascertain children’s understanding.
By the time they leave St. John’s Primary School, we want learners to be skilled at writing for different audiences and purposes. We envisage that our pupils will write well-presented, accurate and fluent pieces, including varied vocabulary, accurate spellings and grammatically correct structures.
Useful Documents
Writing progression through the genres map
SPAG and Skills Progression Map
Supporting SEN in English at St. John's