English Writing
intent
At Barry Primary our writing curriculum is designed to teach writing through a range of stimuli, including texts, visual prompts and meaningful real-life and first-hand experiences which will excite and engage the pupils. Our curriculum will:
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Before writing independently, children will immerse themselves in experiences and discussions which will generate rich vocabulary that will be applied in their writing pieces.
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Provide exciting opportunities to develop and apply writing skills across the curriculum, creating inspiring writing pieces in all areas of the curriculum
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Teach spellings in a progressive way allowing children to learn spelling rules, exceptions and irregular spellings and apply this to their writing.
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Teach a handwriting scheme which will develop legibility and fluidity and to encourage all children to take pride in the presentation of their work, regardless of discipline.
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Enable pupils to have ownership of their writing by reflecting to edit and revise.
implementation
At Barry Primary our writing curriculum is based on the use of high-quality texts. We expose the children to a range of both fiction and non-fiction and immerse them in real life experiences, in order to capture their interests and motivate them to write for a range of purposes.
Our writing opportunities will be meaningful, purposeful and the audience will be clear. High quality texts and visuals offer this opportunity: children have real reasons to write, whether to explain, persuade, inform, instruct and entertain. Where possible, we will link writing to the curriculum focus for that term. During their time at Barry Primary children will read and write a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts, including recounts, news reports, explanation texts, poems, plays and a range of narratives. Through the use of active learning opportunities such as: drama, role-play, storytelling and discussion, we explore rich vocabulary which enables the children to develop sentence level work and creative writing.
We teach English as whole class lessons, using the Chris Quigley Essentials Writing Characteristics to ensure the objectives are age-related and progressive throughout. At Barry Primary we work together to provide support for all pupils to enable them to reach the age-related expectation wherever possible. This will involve the use of high quality modelled and shared writing, word banks and scaffolded support. Pupils are encouraged to reflect on their writing in order to reach their full potential. This is through self and peer-reflection, suggesting ways in which they can edit and improve their work.
Handwriting
impact
The assessment of writing is ongoing throughout every lesson and cross curricular links provide teachers with opportunities to assess children’s independent writing for a range of purposes. Pupils will make good progress from their own personal starting points. Teachers provide the children with ongoing feedback during the lesson personalised to their learning journey, this should give pupils a clear understanding of their next steps and always encourage them to edit and improve their writing. Teachers and leaders use the writing progression document to inform assessments through a moderation process. In addition, pupil voice is used to enable leaders to assess the impact of writing across all areas of the curriculum.
At the end of their time at Barry Primary children will:
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Be provided with the skills necessary to become confident and motivated writers as they move onto their next learning journey.
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Be equipped with a broad range of vocabulary, a firm understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules.
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Write clearly and coherently across a range of genres applying skills that they have been taught, keeping in consideration the audience and purpose of the writing piece.
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Take pride in their presentation and develop a clear, legible and cursive handwriting style.
Handwriting
At Barry Primary School presentation and handwriting are given a high priority. It is an expectation that all children should have high aspirations when writing and this should be present in books and on displays.
We use the Twinkl font in EYFS and KS1 and the Twinkl unlooped cursive in KS2. The children follow the formation of these fonts and begin joining in KS2. This scheme provides a consistent approach to handwriting for the whole school and offers clear progression from KS1 through to KS2. Handwriting is taught a minimum of three times a week at the beginning of English lessons and teachers follow the Barry Primary Expectations document which details how handwriting should be taught and ensures progression. Lessons follow the same structure, a warm up, clear modelling by the teacher, an opportunity to practice the letters or join and apply it to words or in sentences as appropriate.