Writing
Intent
At Shaw Cross, we value our children as writers. We know how important it is to teach our children to write clearly, accurately and coherently for a range of different contexts, purposes and audiences and we want our children to understand the importance of this too. We aim for all of our children to be able to communicate their ideas and emotions to others and for writing to be a tool that allows them to do this. Writing is a complex combination of many skills which some children can find difficult. We appreciate that our children come to us with a vast range of pre-school experiences of being a writer. However, we endeavour to ensure that writing is not a barrier for children’s learning either now or in their future. We recognise that by also embedding the characteristics of effective learning in the Early Years, and the secrets of success in Key Stage 1, that children will have the skills, attributes and learning behaviours to help they achieve well in writing. It is our intention that all of our children to become resilient, fluent and confident writers who can use their writing skills to be creative and express themselves across all areas of the curriculum throughout their school lives and also in adulthood. Our intent is that all children see themselves as successful writers.
We are aware that for our school, early language and access to text can be limited for some children. We therefore have a strong emphasis on language and oracy as we know that this is the foundation to reading and writing. In order to become good writers, children must build up a good bank of vocabulary which they can use correctly and confidently in order to express themselves. We aspire to teach our children how to write creatively using their imagination to write about things outside of their own, sometimes limited experiences. To be successful, creative writers, children need to develop Book Talk, Writer Talk and compositional skills. The teaching and learning of reading and writing is very much linked and we make this clear to the children. We expect children to show respect, and reflect on the experiences and writing of others and the way they portray the wider world around them. We always encourage them to reflect on their own and others writing to enable them to identify and adopt strengths and suggest and make improvements.
At Shaw Cross we recognise the importance of teaching and embedding the skills of transcription in writing at an early age, and intend to teach this through application within our ELS phonics teaching. We recognise the importance of developing children’s handwriting so that they can write fluently, legibly and eventually speedily to enable themselves and others to read what they have written. It is our intention that through a consistent, progressive approach to handwriting, that all children leave us with the ability to record their ideas in a legible, coherent way.
Our mission statement is fulfilled by working in close partnership with our children and their families. We ensure that families know what we are focussing on in writing, the progress that their children are making in writing and how they can help support them further.
We prioritise writing in school with the intention that all children have access to the full content of writing within the statutory EYFS Framework and the Key Stage 1 National Curriculum, both as a subject in its own right, but also as a means of expressing themselves in other subjects across the curriculum throughout their school lives and into adulthood.
Implementation
At Shaw Cross School, we provide a huge range of opportunities for children to write for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences through our cross-curricular approach. Structured pieces of writing are built up over a series of lessons which usually start with a text or an experience. These involve many opportunities for developing language and vocabulary before, during and after writing. Children always have a purpose for writing and are aware of the audience they are writing for. This helps to ensure that they know what they want to write, why they are writing it and who this writing is for.
The way we teaching writing follow the main principles of the Talk for Writing initiative which enables us to focus on the children’s language development. We begin with book talk which involves in-depth reading and discussion of high-quality texts, before moving onto writer talk, which involves dissecting the text looking at it as a writer and picking out language, techniques or ideas which we want to use ourselves. Opportunities for discussion and role play may be developed to enable children to orally rehearse and explore what they want to say before writing. Children then record this through pictures and vocabulary in the form of a plan, before producing writing. Our writing might take the form of different genre such as poetry, a piece of information text or an innovative piece of prose. We ensure that the children see this link between reading and writing, as the texts we have read become an inspiration and a base for our own writing. Throughout the writing process children have opportunities to reflect on their own and others’ writing, respectfully discussing the positives and where they can edit and improve their work.
When undertaking a focus piece of writing we chunk writing into small sections and explore concepts such as language, feelings and actions using the Fantastic Lenses. This is supported by the regular use of working walls. Chunking also facilitates opportunities for effective and timely verbal/written feedback from adults, with pupils having time to reflect and act on this.
Writing is celebrated and given a high profile through school by displaying work within school, on a headteacher writing board, and by sharing with parents through window displays and our website. Inspiring, exciting writing areas have been created in each classroom throughout school, including outdoor provision in the Early Years and Year 1, and resources in the peace garden for Key Stage 1. Children are also given the opportunity to practise their writing across all areas of the curriculum. Whenever possible we perform, share and celebrate our writing through purposeful opportunities; to inform, to provoke a response, to make a statement, give a message or to connect with others.
As well as teaching children the composition skills for writing we recognise the importance of teaching them the fundamental transcription skills of writing so that they can become resilient, confident, fluent writers. Children are taught how to spell phonetically decodable words by segmenting words into their smallest units of sound and writing these down, as well as common undecodable words by sight. These spelling rules and patterns are taught during their daily discrete ELS Phonics sessions and also in context during Literacy lessons in line with the EYFS framework and KS1 National Curriculum. In Year 2, children are taught the Spelling, Punctuation and Grammatical (SPAG) rules from the National Curriculum in discrete SPAG lessons and also in context as part of their Literacy lessons. By revisiting and repeating, children become resilient, confident writers who have opportunities to embed what they are learning.
In the Early Years, children are given many opportunities to develop their gross and fine motor skills as we know that this is an important precursor to writing. They do this through the physical provision to develop upper arm strength, alongside fine motor skills where they mark make using many different techniques and media. This is aimed at children being able to practise, rehearse and master their physical skills for writing. Handwriting is practiced as part of their daily ELS Phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1 and as discrete weekly lessons in Year 2 using the Penpals programme which will help prepare them for using this in Year 3 at our main feeder school.
All children throughout school are given daily opportunities to write, including shared writing, guided writing, independent writing or mark making, writing for pleasure, and writing in other subjects of the curriculum. They also have opportunities to experience memorable moments which will inspire and engage them as writers, such as world book day, meeting real authors, and watching live performances.
We endeavour as a school to work in a close partnership with our children’s families. We inform parents of our foci in writing, their children’s strengths and areas to develop and strategies for supporting them at home. We send home regular writing homework which often focuses on one particular aspect of writing, e.g. letter formation, spelling, punctuation or grammar. We also provide the children with the opportunities to produce pieces of writing at home to showcase the skills they have been learning or to present their own research into a particular topic of interest. These pieces of work are then displayed and rewarded. Parents are informed of what we are looking for in children’s writing, with key vocabulary or definitions accompanying homework so that parents and children are using these correctly at home too.
Impact
Our children have positive attitudes towards writing and see themselves as writers. They are able to write clearly, accurately and coherently for a range of different contexts, purposes and audiences. They understand the importance of writing and how this will benefit them throughout school and in later life, and can confidently communicate their ideas and emotions to others using writing. Our children are resilient, fluent and confident writers who can use their writing skills to be creative and express themselves across all areas of the curriculum throughout their school lives and also in adulthood.
Through the experiences, reading and speaking and listening activities we provide, our children build up a wide and rich vocabulary which they can use in their writing so they can express themselves more clearly and add interest to what they write. They are able to use what they have learnt from literature to write about things outside of their experiences, using their imaginations and the new vocabulary they have learnt. Our pupils are also able to demonstrate the ability to reflect and show respect as they identify strengths and areas to develop in their own and others’ writing. They show the ability to be resilient and understand the purpose of improving their work.
As our children leave us, they will have all the fundamental transcription skills they need to write legibly, fluently and eventually speedily. They will have learnt to spell many words correctly by sight and will be able to make phonically decodable attempts at other words so that their writing can be deciphered and understood by others. They will be able to follow the grammatical rules of our language and punctuate their sentences correctly, which will allow them to express themselves in writing in a way that others can read and understand.
Throughout their time at Shaw Cross, children will understand the purpose of writing and so mark make and write often for a variety of reasons and in a variety of ways at home and school. They will be engaged and motivated to write and so will practice and become more confident and fluent writers. They will be able to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions through writing and use this to enable them to communicate with others and express themselves. The overall impact of all our work in writing will be that our pupils are fully equipped for being able to access and function as adults within society where writing is a necessary skill. The experiences we provide raises the children’s cultural capital and enables our children to see themselves as writers, authors, playwrights and poets of the future.
We ensure all children have access to the content of the EYFS curriculum and the National Curriculum for writing.
Click here for the EYFS curriculum.