Writing at Newlands Primary School

Intent

At Newlands we aim to provide pupils with a high-quality education in writing that will teach pupils to speak, read and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others effectively.  At Newlands, Writing is a crucial part of our curriculum. All children from Foundation Stage to Year 6 are provided with many opportunities to develop and apply their writing skills across the curriculum. We intend for pupils to be able to plan, draft, edit and evaluate their writing.

Furthermore, we believe that all good writers refine and edit their writing over time, so we want children to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement in all pieces of writing, editing their work effectively during and after the writing process. They will also develop an awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. This will enable them to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.

We believe that all pupils should take pride in the presentation of their writing and so they will leave Newlands having developed a fluent and legible handwriting style. Pupils will be taught spelling principles and through ‘word study’ will develop an understanding of words and how they are spelled.

Implementation

Classroom organisation: Within lessons, teachers and teaching assistants target support for slower graspers to enable them to achieve at an age-related level wherever possible. This may involve pre-teaching vocabulary, a greater level of scaffolding and access to additional support materials such as writing frames, word banks or a greater level of modelling. Children are encouraged to extend their writing by being given choices about how they present their writing as well as explaining which choices they have made and why. This gives them a greater understanding of the impact their writing has on the reader.

Spellings: Spellings principles are taught in addition to regular writing sessions.

Grammar and Punctuation: Grammar and punctuation knowledge and skills are taught through writing lessons as much as possible. Teachers plan to teach the required skills through the genres of writing that they are teaching, linking it to the genre to make it more connected with the intended writing outcome. Teachers sometimes focus on particular grammar and punctuation skills as stand alone lessons, if they feel that the children need additional lessons to embed and develop their understanding or to consolidate skills.

English Lesson Sequence: Each year group have a yearly overview of the writing genres, both narrative and non-fiction, that they will teach. These have been planned to ensure a coverage of the key genres as well as build on skills from year to year. Units will take between two and four weeks to complete, and the outcome of each unit will be a sustained piece of writing.

Marking and Feedback: Feedback and marking should be completed, where possible, within the lesson. All marking and feedback is given in line with our marking and feedback policy.

Summative Assessment: Summative assessments will be collected each half term. Teachers will use their professional judgement to determine whether a child is working within age-related expectations, above or below.