Writing

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Intent

At Howden-le Wear Primary School, we want all children to be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing and reach their full potential.

Our aims are to:

Guide and nurture each individual on their own personal journeys to becoming successful writers.
Provide exciting writing opportunities and experiences that engage and enhance all pupils.
We want all children to acquire a wide vocabulary and to be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time in primary school.
We want all children to have a solid understanding of grammar and apply it effectively to their writing.
We want them to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
We believe that all children should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, in part by developing a legible, individual handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school.
We want every child to have a good knowledge of phonics to springboard children to becoming fluent writers.
To plan a progressive curriculum to build upon previous teaching, with regular assessment to ensure each child’s needs are met to reach their full potential.

Implementation

At Howden-le-Wear Primary School, it is our vision that every child will learn to write by being given real and exciting materials and opportunities. We will share excellent writing to inspire children to emulate different styles. We want children to have an understanding that writing has a real purpose and that word choice and style can bring about change. Narrative writing topics are based on quality stories and the children are given time to immerse themselves in the text and get to know the characters and story format. Through non-narrative units, the children learn the features of a range of text types. Children are given opportunities to write for a variety of ‘real life’ situations which gives purpose to their writing, and which are often cross-curricular.

Writing in EYFS and Year 1

At Howden le Wear we want our children to be excited to write for purpose and meaning. Using the ‘Drawing Club’ and ‘Curious Quests’ approach to writing as an immersive adventure into story, poetry and make-believe enables our children have writing opportunities that brims with endless possibilities to invent, imagine and story dream.
 Children begin their writing journey in Nursery using elements of ‘Scribble Club’; Reception then use the ‘Drawing Club’ approach to writing before advancing to ‘Curious Quests’ in Y1.

Drawing Club

Drawing Club incorporates story sharing, speaking and listening, drawing, writing, vocabulary, mathematics, imagination and collaboration. Each week there is a focus story or animation. The children learn new vocabulary linked to the story or animation and are invited to Drawing Club, where they may draw a character, setting or event. They can innovate their drawings and add secret passwords, magic powers or spells, hidden symbols, letters or numerals. At the start of reception, the sessions may be purely drawings based but this will progress on throughout the year to labelling their drawings with initial sounds, CVC words and eventually writing sentences about their drawings

What a writing lesson in Reception looks like:

Curious Quests

To support the transition from Early Years to Key Stage One, we have adopted ‘Curious Quests‘ as our approach for teaching writing in Year 1. This approach builds on the principles of ‘Drawing Club’ by giving opportunities for children to learn the mechanics of writing through explicit vocabulary teaching, giving children a purpose for writing, igniting their imagination and supporting the development of writing through small group work with the teacher. The children also have independent access to carefully resourced continuous provision. Through this approach, we aim to create children who are creative and excited about writing, whilst being able to apply the relevant skills and knowledge so that they are competent writers too

What a writing lesson in Year 1 looks like:

Writing in Year 2

To support the transition into Year 2, writing lessons are planned and delivered using the approach and principles of ‘Curious Quests’ and with a belief that writing should be an immersive and exciting experience with a sense of ownership and purpose. Lessons incorporate explicit teaching of SPAG, handwriting practise, explicit vocabulary teaching, a ‘Book Snuggle’ which incorporates VIPERS skills, modelled and shared writing opportunities and writing either independently or with teacher support. Using this approach, children in Year 2, are introduced to a range of text types within which creativity and ownership is encouraged whilst also building their skills towards becoming confident and skilled writers.

What a writing lesson in Year 2 looks like:

Writing in Key Stage 2

Across Key Stage 2, each class studies different, age appropriate high-quality texts, lasting from several weeks to a whole term depending on text type, length and year group.

Long, medium and short term planning and the use of progression maps ensure that a range of genres are progressively taught and built upon both throughout the year and throughout the school.

Writing is also a key focus in the wider curriculum, especially in ‘Topic’ lessons. Children are encouraged to transfer and build upon their knowledge of a genre studied during English lessons and apply this learning to a topic focus.

Through the writing process, children will acquire and learn the skills to plan, draft and refine their written work over time and are encouraged to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement in all pieces of writing.

Within each unit of work, sequenced lessons ensure that prior learning is checked and built upon and that National Curriculum objectives are taught through a combination of approaches/opportunities e.g.

Opportunities to participate in drama & spoken language activities
Exploring the features of different text types and modelled examples
Handwriting practice
Vocabulary practice
Daily SPAG recap starters
Shared writing (modelled expectations)
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar lessons
Independent writing
Planning, drafting, editing, up-levelling and presenting
Performing

What a sequence of writing looks like in Key Stage 2:

Writing for Pleasure – Continuous Provision

At Howden le Wear Primary School we want our children to love writing and aim to give children ample opportunities to write. Every class has their own ‘Message Centre’ where children can develop their love of writing. Message Centres are designed to be welcoming and fun but with support materials available to aid children with their writing.

In our Message Centres you will find

A variety of pens, pencils, highlighters etc
A variety of paper – lined, plain, coloured, notebooks etc
Staplers, paper clips, Sellotape etc
Dictionaries
Word mats
Writing frames – letters, postcards, recipes etc

Handwriting

At Howden le Wear Primary School we use the Penpals Handwriting Scheme to deliver our handwriting curriculum. Penpals for Handwriting is a complete handwriting scheme for 3-11-year olds, offering clear progression through five developmental stages. It supports and teaches children to develop a fast and fluent handwriting style to help them achieve their potential in writing. Each year group is equipped with a DVD-ROM for whole class teaching and practice books for individual work. The scheme offers a clear progression throughout, starting with the development of fine and gross motor skills in Foundation Stage and building up to purposeful writing with style and speed in Year 6.

Spelling

From Year 2, classes follow the Spelling Shed progressive spelling scheme. Through exploring spelling patterns and rules, we aim to create confident and proficient spellers underpinned by phonics.

Children are also taught to: