Woodthorpe Church of England Primary School

Writing intent

At Woodthorpe Church of England Primary School, we believe that all pupils should be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas, creativity and emotions through their writing. We want pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time at Woodthorpe. We want them to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.

At Woodthorpe we believe that all pupils should have high expectations of themselves and take pride in the presentation of their writing by developing a good handwriting style. We believe that all good writers refine and edit their writing over time, so we want children to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement in all pieces of writing, editing their work effectively during and after the writing process.

Writing Intent, Implementation and Impact

Writing Curriculum

At Woodthorpe our writing curriculum combines speaking and listening, knowledge of key vocabulary, spelling of HFW as well as clear progression of key skills. Our curriculum is designed to build on prior learning and make writing relevant to the age and stage of the children, their interests and the wider world, beginning with the prime areas of learning at EYFS. Our children are taught how to write using talking (say a sentence, talk the story) phonics, grammar, punctuation, sentence structures and enriching vocabulary. Teachers promote writing by enthusing about texts, modelling the process and looking for ways to inspire and motivate pupils so that they see themselves as ‘writers’. Our writing stems from the use of highly quality texts, teachers use shared writing to engage the children in a collaborative process, providing a context for discussion and sharing what ‘best writing’ looks like ensuring that they write as a readers and read writers.

Children have the opportunity to write every day at Woodthorpe either through their work in English, morning work, handwriting, guided reading, phonics, the foundation subjects or in all of these.

‘Talk for Writing’ is used for some units of work, predominately in EYFS and Key Stage 1. Key Stage 2 use some elements from Talk for Writing, where the class teachers feel this is appropriate. Click the link below for more information on Talk for Writing.

Teachers use the DDAT Writing Grids to assess whether our children are at ARE, above, below or working towards. Teachers also provide children with verbal and written feedback, so the children know what is good and also what they need to do to improve their writing.

The English working walls in each class display key vocabulary or common exception words, grammar with examples, punctuation features, and key structures for writing. Additionally, our whole school environment makes high quality vocabulary a priority, beginning in the Early Years, the children are immersed in a word rich environment related to their topic, project or text types.

At Woodthorpe Children from Year 1 to Year 6 also have additional grammar lessons separate from their English lesson to teach the grammar content of the National Curriculum. Children are then encouraged to use and practise what they have learnt in their written work.

Children are encouraged to edit their work from Year 2 and respond to comments in green pen. When the children write across the curriculum, in other subjects, the same expectations about quality, handwriting, spelling and grammar still apply.

 Talk for Writing

Handwriting

Intent

We want all children at Woodthorpe to take pride in their presentation and we encourage the use of cursive/joined handwriting style throughout school beginning at the end of  Year 2 onwards.

In Foundation stage and KS1 we teach letter formation alongside our phonic programme - Read, Write, inc. 

Read, Write, inc letter formation

In Key Stage 2 all children will be using cursive, joined up handwriting.

Woodthorpe handwriting style cursive