Writing

Intent

We strongly believe that good writing is underpinned by the ability of pupils to read well and widely (as appropriate to their age); a good grasp of grammar, punctuation and spelling and a wealth of ideas and experiences to enhance composition and effect. We intend for pupils to be engaged and enthused in their writing alongside developing the skills and knowledge to become proficient, independent writers. Our role as educators is key in providing a learning environment and curriculum that enables our children to think creatively and express themselves. We recognise that our pupils do not all have a wide range of outside experiences and through our thematic curriculum we plan to provide a rich menu of exciting and motivating learning projects designed to challenge and provoke imagination through contexts that have meaning to all of our pupils and will ultimately impact on the content of their writing.

Implementation

• Phonics, via the Albrighton Primary Phonics Scheme (2021)  is taught from Nursery upwards.
• Children are encouraged to use the sounds that they know in their writing.
• Sound charts are referred to in the teaching of spellings in every year group.
• Spelling lessons are timetabled weekly in every KS1/2 class.
• Our early years’ environments facilitate emergent writing.
• Children develop their sentence construction through our sentence ladders – a step by step approach in enabling competent writers. Sentence ladder steps are displayed and interacted with from Reception to Year 6. Pupils have sentence ladder targets to include in their writing. From Year 1, each child has their own personal sentence ladder which they use whenever they are writing.
• Writing is taught across the curriculum, linking in with our thematic approach.
• High quality texts are planned for and used to impact on writing.
• Children benefit from a wide range of experiences, both indoors and outdoors to enhance their creative ideas for writing.
• Talk for writing is key for the development of writing at our school, with much collaboration and sharing of ideas.
• Guided practice – modelled, shared and guided writing, throughout the teaching sequence of writing is designed to enable independent writers.
• All adults model writing with the children, pitching high and thinking out loud to impact on children’s thought processes and aspirations for writing.
• Teachers create success criteria with the children which children check against during and at the end of their writing.
• Writing learning objectives are expanded upon – with individual building blocks – enabling children to fulfil their potential.
• Children generate powerful vocabulary together; this is expanded as appropriate through the use of given word banks and thesauruses.
• Every classroom from Year 1 upwards has an interactive literacy wall with language devices and prompts to support writing.
• Resources, which may be differentiated for ability are provided on tables to maximise progress.
• Children self-edit/improve their work using ‘think-pink’.
• Next step marking focuses on grammar, punctuation and spelling.
• Pupils respond to marking by purple-polishing.

Impact

Children become confident, independent writers who are able to check and improve their work.

Children enjoy writing at Albrighton – we know this: from their engagement in lessons; the content in their books and because they tell us in pupil interviews. Pupils enthuse about how they get to use their imagination and express their own ideas. Data shows that children achieve well in writing, preparing them for the next stage in their learning.