English- Writing

“If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.”  (Martin Luther King)

Curriculum Intent

At Our Lady’s, we recognise that competence in writing is vital for the development of children’s communication skills; a crucial ingredient for progress in other subject areas. Being able to write, offers the opportunity to store information, communicate with each other and to reflect and record creative ideas. When a child becomes a skilled writer, they understand the characteristics of writing’s many forms and are able to adapt their writing to suit a wide range of purposes. Writing is incorporated into our curriculum through planned writing based around different text choices. This approach enables our children to present their learning of curriculum knowledge through a variety of writing tasks and genres, while also ensuring they have the opportunity to explore a range of different texts. As a school, we aim for children to develop writing fluency so they can record their thoughts smoothly and efficiently. We want them to achieve automaticity in writing words, enabling them to express their intended meaning with clarity.

To support children’s writing progress, we have a clear, consistent, whole school approach to writing. The sequence of writing activities is designed to spark both enthusiasm and creativity in our children through the use of carefully chose texts. While also ensuring the technical skills to tackle all writing genres are embedded; meeting the expectations of the National Curriculum.

The impact of our writing journey is to ensure children have:

• Enthusiasm for writing throughout school.
• A growing confidence and competence as writers for a variety of purposes.
•  A sense of achievement in writing, regardless of their age or ability
• A growing knowledge and understanding of grammar and different writing genres.
• The opportunity to listen to a range of inspiring author’s work that in turn inspires their own writing.
• An awareness of the importance of writing in everyday life and its range of uses.
• A sense of pride for their own work.

Implementation

Writing is taught through a clear sequence of modelling, shared writing, guided practice and independent application. Lessons are structured so that pupils understand the purpose of writing and the intended audience before beginning their work. Teachers explicitly teach grammar, punctuation and spelling skills and provide regular opportunities for pupils to apply these within extended pieces of writing.  High-quality texts are used as stimuli to expose pupils to ambitious vocabulary, varied sentence structures and different authorial styles. Pupils are given time to plan, draft, edit and publish their writing so that they understand writing as a process rather than a single task. Regular opportunities for retrieval and rehearsal of spelling patterns, sentence construction and punctuation support long-term retention. Feedback is purposeful and allows pupils to refine and improve their work, developing resilience and pride in presentation.

Inclusion & Adaptive Teaching

Our writing curriculum is ambitious and inclusive, ensuring that all pupils can access learning and achieve success. Teaching is adapted to meet individual needs so that barriers to writing are reduced and confidence is built.

Adaptive strategies may include:

• Use of dictation or speech-to-text tools for pupils who struggle with transcription or motor skills

• Word banks, sentence stems and visual prompts

• Pre-teaching vocabulary and modelled examples

• Scaffolded planning frames and structured writing supports

• Flexible grouping and targeted adult support

• Alternative recording methods such as oral storytelling, audio recordings or typed work where appropriate

Teachers carefully consider each child’s strengths and needs so that pupils can demonstrate their understanding without being limited by handwriting speed or spelling difficulty. As pupils gain confidence, scaffolds are gradually removed to promote independence.

Enrichment

Writing is enriched through a wide range of engaging opportunities that inspire pupils and provide authentic purposes for writing. These may include:

• Participation in national and local writing competitions

• Online author workshops and virtual author readings

• Visits to local libraries and community reading events

• Book weeks, themed writing days and cross-curricular projects

• Opportunities to publish work in school newsletters, displays or class books

• Links with secondary schools or local organisations for collaborative writing projects

• Drama, storytelling and performance poetry activities

• Celebration assemblies and writing showcases for families

These experiences help pupils to see themselves as real writers and understand that writing has value beyond the classroom.

Impact

The impact of our writing curriculum is seen in pupils who write with increasing confidence, accuracy and creativity. Pupils develop a secure understanding of grammar and punctuation and can select vocabulary and sentence structures appropriate to purpose and audience.

Children demonstrate pride in their work, resilience when editing and the ability to reflect on how to improve their writing. Pupil voice, work scrutiny and assessment outcomes show clear progression in skills across year groups.

By the end of primary school, pupils are equipped with the knowledge, technical skills and enthusiasm needed to continue their writing journey successfully in the next stage of education.

Spelling 

Read Write Inc. Spellingis a spelling programme based on proven strategies of teacher modelling followed by partner work, to embed learning. The programme covers all the National Curriculum word structures and spelling requirements. It is:

• Built around a series of short, progressive activities
• Uses partner work to help children learn effectively and recall what they have learnt

What does it look like?

It is a spelling programme which is run in daily sessions for 15 minutes.

There is a spelling book which has a range of teacher-led activities, paired work and independent activities. 

The book is split into different units that cover a range of spelling rules from The English National Curriculum

How a unit works

• Speed Spell (test)
• Spelling Zone (online introduction of next unit)
• Dots and Dashes (graphemes)
• Rapid Recap
• Word Changers (root words prefix/suffix)
• Words to Log and Learn
• Dictation (practice in context)
• Four-in-a-row (recall)
• Choose the right word (word families)
• Team Teach (review and revise)

How to support at home

• Talk to the children about the spellings they have to learn
• Discuss the strategies they are using to spell their spellings
• Support your child learning their weekly spellings
• Ensure you child logs into Oxford Owl on a regular basis to play the games linked to the spellings of the week

Grammar and Punctuation

Teaching and learning:

At Our Lady's, grammar and punctuation are taught consistently throughout school, either as the main focus of a lesson or subtly incorporated into the writing process. We believe that new grammar and punctuation concepts should be introduced in the context of students' learning, aligned with their current unit of study. For instance, Year 1 children might learn to describe the events of the Great Fire of London, introducing the past tense through the ‘-ed’ suffix, which is essential for their progression. Additionally, weekly discrete SPAG lessons are held at Our Lady's, with the new concepts being integrated into the week's English lessons.

 In cross-curricular work, there is an expectation that grammar and punctuation skills will be demonstrated, and taught concepts applied precisely and accurately. The marking policy will be applied to ensure that correct punctuation and grammar are applied in all writing tasks across all subjects. Speaking and listening activities in all subjects enable pupils to practise correct grammar in the form of recounting stories and information and constructing sentences effectively. This in turn will impact on children’s ability to write using correct punctuation and grammar and is intended to develop the ‘writing voice’ of all children throughout school.

Please see our progression document below for punctuation and grammar. 

Handwriting

At our school, we believe that developing the fundamental skill of handwriting is essential for every child, as it supports communication, confidence and overall academic progress. We follow recognised good-practice guidance to ensure pupils build strong foundations through correct posture, pencil grip, paper position and letter formation, helping writing to become fluent and comfortable over time. Handwriting is taught both in class and through targeted handwriting intervention where needed, so that each individual child is supported to achieve their full potential.

When children start learning intial letter sounds through the Read Write Inc phonics scheme, they are taught the formation of letters using the visual cards and rhymes (see below) .  Children are taught to write using printed letters in reception.

In year 2, children begin to learn cursive handwriting and by Year 4, children are expected to have an efficient and legible cursive handwriting style.

We aim for our children to: 

• Understand the importance of neat presentation in order to communicate their ideas clearly.
• Take pride in the presentation of their work and gain a sense of achievement.
• Present work in a neat and orderly fashion appropriate to the task.
• Use the correct letter formation.
• Develop fluency and speed whilst writing, so that they are able to write in a neat cursive style by  the end of KS2. 

In the early stages children are taught:

• How to hold a pen/pencil correctly and form letters and numbers of regular size and shape.
• Write from left to write and top to bottom of a page. 
• Start and finish upper and lower case letters correctly.
• Put regular spaces between letters and words.
• The importance of clear and neat presentation in order to communicate meaning effectively.

In the later stages children are taught to:

• Write legibly in a joined style with increased fluency and speed.
• Use different forms of handwriting for different purposes, e.g. understand that making quick written notes in English or jottings in maths does not require the same level of neatness as other writing or maths work

• Parents and Carers Letterjoin Home Manual.pdf
• Letter-join HomeAccess.pdf