Intent - we are creating writers by...

At Wolsey House Primary School our ambition is to give children the best education which develops a lifelong love of learning.  We want our children to be engaged, enthusiastic and resilient leaners who are able to control and manipulate the mechanics of reading and writing in order to communicate their thoughts, feelings and ideas effectively and have a clear understanding of others’.

Writing is an essential part of our curriculum and all children from Foundation Stage to Year 6 are provided with a great range of opportunities to develop and importantly apply their writing skills across the curriculum. It is our intention that children develop a clear understanding of the writing process and to establish themselves as an author with a clear voice.

Through our use of high quality texts, we foster children's interest in writing giving them a clear audience and purpose. Children are taken on a writing journey which builds their knowledge of writing for context and purpose.  The progressive curriculum builds on prior knowledge from previous years allowing the children to explore a variety of genres.  The writing continuum builds in the crucial skills of planning, drafting and re-drafting their writing. Grammatical skills and spelling structures are linked to the writing genre studied and underpin the writing process.

We will broaden our children's exposure to high level vocabulary and build opportunities for the new vocabulary to be used in context and in other areas of the curriculum.  We want our children to apply their understanding of vocabulary and grammatical features within and across the English curriculum.

Our children learn how to understand the relationships between words, word meaning, implied meaning and figurative language within writing lessons, whilst ensuring that children are supported in their spelling strategies. Children are taught to control their speaking and writing consciously using correct Standard English and understanding the importance of this.

Implementation - this is how we teach Writing

These aims are embedded across our literacy lessons and the wider curriculum. We have a rigorous and well organised English curriculum that provides many purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. Teachers use KTC phonics program, Pie, Corbett’s Talk4Writing and the Model, Teach, Apply initiative. Where appropriate, cross curricular links are made with themes taken from the Big Picture and the identified ‘Sticky Words’ are embedded and transferable across the curriculum.

Our curriculum closely follows the aims of the National Curriculum for English 2014. The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

● acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language

● appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage

● write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences

● use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas

● are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

Impact - this what our children have learnt - the knowledge and skills in Writing

As a result we have a staff who are equipped with the confidence, skills and resources to tailor the curriculum to the needs of our learners.  We have children who are positive about writing and are proud to share their written work. They value and praise each other and can identify strengths and next steps in their own and each other’s writing.   They have an awareness of the audience and a clearly defined purpose for writing and can articulate what that is.  Our children are authors.