Writing is a curriculum area which we teach particularly well and we are very proud of the quality of the writing outcomes in school - as are our children!
What do we do that is different?
We focus on a single genre of writing each half term and we model heavily so that all children have a very clear idea of what good writing looks like, and lots of opportunities to practice (and master) a certain style of writing before moving on.
We scaffold the writing so that all children are confident to write and have the tools that they need to write well. Our very clear grammatical focus each half term guides us in our modelling and our expectations.
We give children a lot of accurate feedback about their writing to ensure that they pay attention to the detail and write with accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar, as well as perfecting their handwriting over time.
We celebrate and share our love of writing.
Children in EYFS and KS1 write independently and confidently. They use their phonics to segment words into their individual phonemes and are quickly able to encode the words that they speak in the written form.
As children enter KS2, we begin asking children to draft their writing. These drafts are subject to a high level of marking and feedback which, alongside pupils, identifies all errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar and seeks to perfect the written form. Children go on to publish very high quality, very accurate writing which they are very proud of. This intensive feedback leads to accelerated progress in writing throughout KS2 and we are proud that our Y6 pupils year-on-year are very competent and confident writers as a result.
In addition to daily writing lessons throughout school, we also teach handwriting, spellings and grammar daily. We teach the fundamentals of writing discretely so that children have the skills, knowledge and experience they need to write well for life.
As children become very proficient in the range of genres which recur throughout their years at school, children are able to utilise their skills in writing at length across the curriculum.
The high quality of writing outcomes throughout school are a great source of pride.