Writing — Warren Academy

At Warren, all children will leave their time at school knowing their voice as a writer is valued. Children will have strong written skills in order to prepare them for their futures, ensuring they reach their potential. At Warren, we teach writing with a purpose. Ensuring children are equipped with the skills they need to write with purpose, creativity, and confidence. Children are inspired to write using key texts that not only support their writing skills but their vocabulary/language acquisition. Children will draw on their knowledge from accessing a range of texts and will develop their own writing style. Through different oracy strategies and scaffolds children are able to write for a particular audience, able to select the correct techniques to use.

We intend that all children are leaders of their own writing by offering opportunities for children to write independently, editing their writing and seeing this writing published. All children are given a range of tools and strategies to support them in articulating their ideas in a clear and concise way, whilst also giving children the freedom to write with creativity and flair. Children are able to apply their skills of writing across the curriculum.

The teaching of writing begins in EYFS, with the development of fine motor skills and phonetic knowledge. This is built on year by year to ensure children are confident writers. Reading runs closely alongside writing, children need to be fluent readers in order to support their writing.

Aims

The overarching aim for English in the National Curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written language. The national curriculum for writing aims to ensure that all pupils:

By the end of EYFS

Children use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds.
They also write some irregular common words.
They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others.
Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible

By the end of Key Stage One

Children can write simple, coherent narratives about personal experiences and those of others at least 1 A4 page in length (real or fictional).
They can write about real events, recording these simply and clearly demarcate sentences in their writing with capital letters and full stops, and use question marks correctly, when required.
They can use present and past tense mostly correctly and consistently.
They can use co-ordination (e.g. or / and / but) and some subordination (e.g. when / if / that /because) to join clauses.
They can segment spoken words into phonemes and represent these by graphemes, spelling many of these words correctly and making phonically-plausible attempts at others as well as spell many common exception words.
They can read and write most of the first 100 high frequency words and those from the year 1 & 2 common exception words list.
Their handwriting is formed accurately using capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower-case letters. There is spacing between words that reflects the size of the letter.

By the end of Key Stage Two

Children can write effectively for a range of purposes and audiences, selecting language that shows good awareness of the reader.
They can integrate dialogue in narratives to convey character and advance the action.
They can select vocabulary and grammatical structures that reflect what the writing requires.
They can use passive verbs to affect how information is presented; using modal verbs to suggest degrees of possibility
They can use a range of devices to build cohesion (e.g. conjunctions, adverbials of time and place, pronouns, synonyms) within and across paragraphs.
They use verb tenses consistently and correctly throughout their writing
They use the range of punctuation taught at key stage 2 mostly correctly.
They can correctly spell most words from the year 5 / year 6 spelling list, all 100 high frequency words and use a dictionary to check the spelling of uncommon or more ambitious vocabulary.
They have developed and can maintain legibility in joined handwriting when writing at speed.

How is Writing taught at Warren?

At Warren Academy, our writing curriculum is closely linked to the theme or topic which each class has been allocated for that specific half term/term. A key text is then linked to the theme or topic, and writing outcomes are planned based around the key text. Between 2-3 writing outcomes are produced within a half term, covering fictional, non-fiction and poetic style writing. Grammar objectives are then planned to be taught within each of these units, giving context for the grammar that has been taught to be applied within writing outcomes.

Here is an example of a typical half term of writing for a year group:

Summer-1-Y5-mtp

The teaching of writing is supported through a variety of strategies and scaffolds:

Oracy and sentence stems
Supported by wider reading
Vocabulary focus
High quality WAGOLLs and the use of toolkits
English working walls
Success criteria
Guided writing
Small group writing
Slow writing
Story maps
Oral rehearsal and role play
Within provision (EYFS AND Y1)
Morning activity SPAG focus
Active English to support grammar knowledge

Handwriting

Handwriting is taught daily across school, supported by the Oxford owl scheme. Teachers refer to the handwriting progression document to ensure consistency across all children’s handwriting and to identify children who may need additional support with this.

Spelling

In EYFS/Year 1- Spelling is taught phonetically and through the teaching of tricky words and high frequency words. This will continue until the children are ready (Y2) to move to Phase 6 and spelling rules. This is taught daily for 15 minutes. Children will explore the Etymology and Morphology of words to deepen their spelling skills and knowledge. This supports the children’s progression as they are taught more complex spelling rules.

Spelling is vital to allow children to write for a range of purposes and to encourage a love of writing. It also allows children to use a wide range of vocabulary within their writing and to apply spelling patterns and rules confidently.