Intent

At St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, the aim of teaching writing is to ensure that our children both enjoy and effectively practise the skills needed to become literate and to be able to communicate effectively in the ever-changing world around them. Statutory requirements for the teaching and learning of English are laid out in the National Curriculum English Document (2014) and in the Communication, Language and Literacy section of the Early Years Framework. We want our children to develop a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards writing that will stay with them. Writing enables pupils to communicate with others, it encourages thinking and can give our children the platform to share their experiences and ideas. 

Implementation

In order to help us to develop confident and enthusiastic writers, our teaching of writing is inspired by high quality texts, often linked to our class curriculum. We use the elements of Talk for Writing to provide the framework for delivering our writing curriculum. We want to excite, enthuse and engage children in writing that is purposeful and meaningful and provide our children with regular opportunities to write for a range of purposes and audiences. 

Teachers across the school follow the same process in the teaching of writing – breaking it down into 3 stages: 

Imitation

•  familiarisation with the text type using high quality model texts, lots of oracy activities and shared building of tool kits for a text type.

Innovation

•  opportunities for short burst writing, imitation of excellent examples of the genre and rehearsing gps skills and techniques. 

Invention

• Planning – supporting children in using a range of planning tools, frames and formats to generate and organise their ideas 

• Drafting – utilising strategies such as shared and guided writing to model the process of being a writer 

• Revising & editing – supporting children in making changes to the content of writing in light of feedback and self-evaluation and also making changes to ensure the text is accurate and coherent 

Grammar and punctuation are taught explicitly at the beginning of each year group according to our progression document and then rehearsed throughout the year according to the genre being taught, ensuring purpose is given for each new skill.

Spelling is taught daily through Phonics lessons in Reception and year 1 and across the rest of school in transcriptional and phonemic patterned activities. Children who need additional support with phonics or spelling receive a variety of interventions that are tailored to address their gaps.

handwriting

We monitor judgements in the assessment of writing through termly in-school moderations as well as collaboration moderations throughout the year with partner schools. 

Impact

Pupils will make good or better progress from their own personal starting points. By the end of Year Six they will be able to write clearly and accurately.  Our pupils will acquire a wide vocabulary and have a strong command of the written word. Most importantly, they will develop a love of writing and be well equipped for the rest of their education.