Writing at St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School
Vision:
That every child will become a confident writer by being given exciting and inspiring opportunities to engage, support and challenge them. We want our children to become capable, independent and enthusiastic writers who will develop a genuine love of writing.
Children will use writing as a way of expressing themselves and communicating with others and will write independently for a wide range of purposes. They will reflect on their own work and that of others and be able to see the impact that their writing can have.
Intent:
At St Augustine’s reading and writing are at the heart of everything we do. We aspire to develop fluent and confident children whilst instilling a genuine love of learning. Our pupils are equipped with a range of strategies to excel in their writing journey.
In line with the National Curriculum Objectives for Writing, our intent is 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
We incorporate the Curriculum by Unity Schools Partnership (CUSP) to support our teaching of Writing which draws on taught content from History, Geography and Science and from the depth study of core texts from the literature spine. Expert subject knowledge is carefully woven into each Writing module which gives teachers the opportunity to teach and rehearse key knowledge and skills before applying this learning to meaningful extended outcomes. The careful architecture of this curriculum ensures that pupils build on prior learning and maximise purposeful curriculum connections to become writers for life. Within the curriculum, vocabulary, punctuation and grammar is taught both directly and discreetly.
Implementation:
Our whole curriculum is shaped by our school vision which aims to enable all children, regardless of background, ability and/or additional needs, to flourish. It allows them to become the very best version of themselves they can possibly be. We teach the National Curriculum, supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression.
All of our Writing lessons follow our Teaching and Learning model which we supplement with the CUSP lesson structure. Every lesson focuses on an element a writing skill. Each lesson, children are encouraged to recall learning from the previous lesson. Teachers explain and model effectively through demonstrating key skills and how to use in a variety of ways.
Early Years
At St Augustine’s the journey to being an effective writer begins in Nursery. We fully understand that before our children can be expected to pick up a pencil and engage in refined fine motor tasks, they must first become confident and proficient in whole body, gross motor movements; running, jumping, climbing, crawling – the fundamental movement skills. The journey to the page begins in our carefully designed, physically enabling Early Years environments, where our children are encouraged to learn through movement; the physical language of learning.
Throughout Nursery and Reception children learn through carefully considered play opportunities that foster purposeful and progressive social interaction and ultimately, language; the next step in writing development. Before children can write, they must talk. At St Augustine’s we foster a language rich provision, where all adults’ model ‘talk’, recognising that immersing our children in language is a key step on the road to developing our young writers.
As our children develop their ability to make marks on the page and to ascribe meaning to those marks, phonics teaching then leads the way for the next part of the writing journey. Teachers in Early Years and KS1, model daily how to write (and read) different letters and sounds, building up to increasingly complex words, captions, sentences and beyond.
Key Stage 1 and 2 Writing
Our English curriculum has reading at the heart of it, and writing is taught through carefully selected texts that motivate and inspire our children to pick up a pencil and get involved. Writing takes place on a daily basis, with children engaging in small writing activities at the beginning of a new unit of work, rehearsing new content and being guided to assess their own competency. As the unit progresses children are challenged to write at length demonstrating the key skills modelled and discussed during lessons. Their work is assessed each day and children are given personalised next steps tasks to address, enabling them to make constant progress.
From year 1 through to year 6, a piece of independent writing is assessed at the end of each unit of work (typically 2-3 weeks). Teachers use carefully selected criteria to determine each child’s current levels of ability and award each piece of writing a score. This then enables us to track each child’s individual progress, and offer further challenge or support where necessary. Writing judgements are regularly moderated at St Augustine’s to ensure the very highest standards of accuracy.
Handwriting
In Reception and Key Stage 1, handwriting is taught using the Little Wandle handwriting programme. Children are taught to form individual letters in their phonics lesson. This is then reinforced in discretely taught handwriting lessons.
In Key Stage 2, handwriting is taught through the Letter Join handwriting scheme. Handwriting is taught daily where the children begin to learn to join letters correctly. Pencils are used for writing in Reception, Key Stage 1 and Year 3. Pens are introduced in Year 4 and used consistently in Year 5 and 6 once the children have developed a legible handwriting style.
Impact:
The implementation of our curriculum ensures that when children leave school, they are confident, knowledgeable learners.
Writing in our school is progressive and planned to meet the needs of all children. Assessments and are carried out regularly to ensure children are understanding the fundamental skills in spelling, punctuation and grammar. In addition, each child is provided with opportunities to apply their learnt skills to a longer piece of writing. These pieces of writing are self assessed by the children and by the teacher. Pupils’ difficulties and misconceptions are identified through immediate formative assessment and addressed with rapid intervention – commonly through individual
or small group support.
