Writing

Our writing curriculum is designed to provide a broad and balanced education that meets the needs of all children. We follow the award-winning Ready Steady Write from Literacy Counts to develop confident, independent and successful writers with high aspirations. Our writing curriculum is research-informed and impact-proven, carefully designed to support all children to master the foundational skills and write for a clear audience and purpose. Through the use of high-quality, vocabulary-rich texts, we provide exciting and meaningful reasons to write. Children are immersed in literature and taught to craft their writing with precision, using a range of pedagogical approaches, including sentence accuracy, modelled writing and shared writing, as well as regular opportunities for editing. We value spoken language as a foundation for writing. Through structured talk, drama and vocabulary exploration, children learn how to organise and express their ideas clearly before writing them down. Our aim is for every child – regardless of need – to write fluently and take pride in their work. We want our pupils to leave primary school as enthusiastic writers, ready for the next stage of their education.

Implementation:

Organisation and Curriculum Coverage: Ready Steady Write empowers teachers to provide high-quality teaching of writing through high-quality literature. These detailed units of work centre on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts, with a wealth of writing opportunities within and across the curriculum. They provide:

• Clear sequential Episodes of Learning
• Vocabulary learning and contextualised spelling, grammar and punctuation
• Wider reading for the wider curriculum
• Example Texts linked to writing outcomes
• A wealth of supporting resource

Our English curriculum is developed around a sequence of high-quality age-appropriate texts, using Literacy Count’s Ready Steady Write units of learning. We use each book to create opportunities to:

• develop grammar and punctuation knowledge and understanding to use and apply across the wider curriculum, through sentence accuracy sessions;
• explore the Writing structure and features of different genres, identifying the purpose and audience;
• plan and write an initial piece of Writing with a clear context and purpose before evaluating the effectiveness of Writing by editing and redrafting.

Building on this foundation, we teach literacy using a range of strategies which include:

• Group Discussion – Children discuss and interrogate new ideas in a small group or whole class setting. They listen to and value each other’s ideas whilst taking on board feedback to improve their own explanations.
• Partner Talk – Children work in partners to discuss their ideas. They can explain their ideas about texts they have read and prepare their ideas before they write.
• Questioning – Teachers use a range of questioning strategies to establish children’s current understanding and develop their learning.
• Modelled Writing – Teachers model Writing and editing to demonstrate the high expectations they have. They verbally ‘think aloud’ to make the Writing process explicit and provide a rich and varied vocabulary for the children to utilise in their own work. This happens daily, through sentence accuracy
• Shared Writing – Teachers use the ideas from the children to create shared pieces of Writing. This enables the children to see the Writing process in action as well as having pride and ownership over the finished piece.
• Editing – All children are signposted to regular opportunities for reviewing and editing their own and the work of others.
• Working walls – Teachers and children regularly update working walls to ensure learning is documented within a unit of work.

Class teachers ensure that the Writing process is clearly evident on working walls, with modelled examples being available to all pupils as the sequence of lessons develops.

Resources: each class has a resource box with their Ready Steady Write vehicle texts, reveal objects and supplementary texts which support the themes and genre being taught for that half term. The lesson plans, resources and leadership support is found on the membership homepage online.  The Enhancements for the units can be seen in our indoor and outdoor areas in EYFS.

Working Walls and Table Resources: each class is expected to develop an English working wall which adapts daily with teaching. Displays should model the writing process and scaffolds needed for children to apply to their own writing. Spellings, handwriting and supporting phonics materials should also be displayed within the classroom to aid children’s writing. Sentence accuracy checkers are available to all children, both in their books and in the environment. Staff will model the expectations throughout the curriculum.

Planning:  the entire writing curriculum is mapped out on coverage and progression documents.  Then, the Ready Steady Write units include all of the resources needed for each teacher to plan and deliver lessons.  There are a range of scaffolds and supporting resources and teachers tweak and shape the units to meet the specific needs of their children.  There are also assessment proformas which are completed half termly and identify next steps for children.

Inclusion:

Children with English as an additional language:

It is vital that children who have English as an additional language have English modelled accurately by all staff at school. Collaborative work with peers (where English is their first language) is essential and EAL children should be provided with consistent opportunities for this verbal interaction. All teachers include a range of strategies to support children with EAL which includes:

• Teacher and peer modelling and consistent use of visual support
• Repetition and recasting of language features
• Word banks and scaffolded speaking and listening activities
• Resources that include images to secure language understanding
• Use of technology to support interpretation of Example Texts

Teachers work with the SENDCO to best meet the needs of individuals within their classes. Children who are new to English are assessed and support is put in place by the SENDCO to help them make rapid progress.

Children with Special Educational Needs:

Some children experience learning difficulties, which affect their progress in English. Class teachers inform the SENDCO if they are concerned that a child may have underlying learning difficulties. Some children then receive SEN support. This may include:

• scaffolds and supports to develop writing ideas and language acquisition
• technology to support the generation of ideas, develop words banks and plan and write
• explicit instruction, including the modelling of sentences, paragraphs, planning and editing – with opportunities for the children to practice modelled techniques
• a focus on cognitive and metacognitive strategies to help children articulate their learning
• flexible groupings to ensure peer support and appropriate level of challenge

Confident and competent writers:  children are given opportunities to deepen their knowledge in writing and to effectively draw upon their reading when constructing texts. writing groups and differentiation. Lesson plans for Ready Steady Write include appropriate challenge and these are considered when delivering lessons.

Impact

The innovative practice across the school provides a strong foundation and opportunities for children to collaborate and develop social skills both indoors and out. This curriculum design ensures that the needs of individual and small groups of children can be met within the environment of quality first teaching, supported by targeted, proven interventions where appropriate. In this way it can be seen to impact in a very positive way on children’s outcomes. High quality visits and visitors to the school enhance the curriculum and provide opportunities for Writing for a purpose. Children have opportunities to share their learning with each other, their parents and carers and other learners through school-based and external exhibitions, performances, competitions and events involving other schools. Developing their independence and motivation as learners and their sense of responsibility as future citizens is at the heart of all our teaching and learning. As a result, we have a community of enthusiastic writers who enjoy showcasing their developing literacy knowledge and skills. They are confident to take risks in their writing, and love to discuss and share their ideas.

Assessment

Teachers draw upon observations and continuous assessment to ensure children are stretched and challenged and to identify those children who may need additional support. Formative assessment of Writing is completed through teachers’ daily feedback to inform future planning. Teachers use the children’s everyday writing and adapt models and input to meet their current needs.  Teachers also complete a Reflecting on Unit outcomes document after each half termly unit, to identify next steps and the subsequent units are amended to include these focuses.  Daily sentence accuracy work is carefully monitored to ensure children are constructing sentences both coherently and accurately.  Termly staff meetings allow for whole school moderation of writing to deepen understanding of standards.

Subject leaders will analyse 3 X termly data and address areas for curriculum development. Children’s attainment, progress and barriers to learning will be discussed in Pupil Progress Meetings with senior leaders and clear actions to work on will be planned together, to support pupils and staff in closing gaps.

Expectations for the classroom environment:

• Letter formation as part of the phonics programme / handwriting policy is used daily to support accurate letter formation
• Examples of handwriting joins and formation for year group expectations are displayed to reinforce national standards
• All teachers’ writing around the classroom (e.g., flip chart) reflects the handwriting policy.

EYFS

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Handwriting Progression Plan

This plan has been created to ensure there is a consistent approach to the teaching of handwriting which focuses on building progression from Year R then through KS1 and KS2. The aim is for pupils to be able to write legibly, fluently, and quickly so they can write what they want to say.  It is noted that left-handed pupils require specific teaching support (see Appendix 1).  For pupils who are struggling, extra support will be given at their challenge point. It is vital that when writing, teachers model handwriting that is expected of children. All handwritten displays in school will follow this handwriting style. Handwriting must be explicitly taught daily.

Reception

In Reception, we concentrate on building both gross and fine motor skills needed for handwriting. Proper posture and pencil grip are essential early on. We teach children the key abilities: pre-handwriting patterns, sitting, pencil grip and paper tilt. For single letter formation, we follow the RWI program of teaching letter formation alongside the phoneme being taught.

KS1

Teaching handwriting in KS1 will build on letter formation that has been taught in Foundation stage. We continue to build on gross and fine motor skills needed for handwriting for those children who need it.

After letter formation of all single letters have been taught, we move onto teaching letters in ‘families’ (letters that are formed in similar ways). Correct letter formation should be established before joining letters. An unjoined, clear style (print) is sufficient in KS1, however, in Year 2 pupils should be taught to write with a joined style as soon as they can form letters securely with the correct orientation.

Statutory Requirements:  Pupils should be taught to:

Handwriting Long Term Progression of Teaching

We will use resources from ‘Teach Handwriting’ to ensure consistency across the school. It is crucial that all letters are correctly modelled and all adults are using the correct letter formation. Therefore, teaching staff must use the correct routes into handwriting which are stated in the Year groups headings (see below). If you finish the letters for each term early, use the time to practice and apply.

https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/index.html 

Animations can be watched. Handwriting should be practiced in lined books (except in Foundation stage where plain paper should be used). Worksheets can be printed for those pupils requiring more support.

KS2

In KS2 handwriting will be taught with the aim of continuing to write legibly, fluently and with increasing speed so that pupils are able to write what they want to say. Pupils should be joining handwriting throughout their independent writing.

Statutory Requirements:  Pupils should be taught to:

Children in KS2 who are still developing the cursive style, should be assessed and then taught from where they are on the progression plan outlined for KS1.

Year 3 and 4

Pupils should revise Year 2 Terms 3 – 6 (joins) with a focus on the statutory requirements.

Constant daily practice should be linked into the whole curriculum. For example, from Year 3/ 4, Year 5/6 spelling lists. Vocabulary practice from History / Geography / Science curriculums. Specific vocabulary from English lessons.

Year 5 and 6

Pupils should continue to practice handwriting and be encouraged to increase the speed of it, so that problems with forming letters do not get in the way of their writing down what they want to say.

They should be clear about what standard of handwriting is appropriate for a particular task, for example quick notes or a final handwritten version.

They should also be taught to use an unjoined style, for example, labelling a diagram or data, writing an email address or for algebra and capital letters, for example, for filling out a form.

Appendix 1

Specific support for pupils who are left-handed

• Consider modelling correct letter formation to left-handed children on an individual or small group basis (it is difficult for left-handers to follow letter formation when it is modelled by a right-handed teacher).
• Sit left-handed children on the left of a right-handed child so they are not competing for space.
• Position the paper correctly (to their left and slanted) so that they can see the tip of the pencil as they write.
• Use the right hand to steady the page to prevent the paper sliding as they write.
• Keep the hand and wrist under the line (sometimes writing on a sloped surface can help).
• Hold the pencil with a good tripod grip, at least 3cm away from the point (stickers could be used to mark the correct place for grip).
• Put a dot at the start of the line to remind them to write from left to right. Left-handed children often write naturally from right-to-left when learning to write. Extra practice with left-to-right activities may be needed before they are able to do this automatically.