English
Writing
Intent
At Pippins School, we believe that English is a key skill for life both inside and out of education and that is why it features across all the subjects taught across our school. Our aim is to provide children with key transferrable writing skills to build on year on year, that can be used throughout each phase of their education and prepare them for secondary school, encompassing grammar, punctation and spelling skills.
Teaching children to write for a range of purposes and audiences can be very exciting, especially here at Pippins where we provide children with a range of engaging hooks to capture their imagination! We aim to provide the children with varied reasons for writing as well as extended writing sessions to build their writing stamina, and believe that this not only produces higher quality writing, but allows our learners to apply their skills to a range of different contexts. We aim to inspire our children and develop a love of writing.
Writing across all subject areas will prepare our children for secondary school and the more in-depth approach to analysing, planning and innovating their writing.
Implementation
Children receive 4-5 writing lessons a week as well as regular opportunities to write though cross-curricular activities. Writing and reading are closely linked and we ensure that children are reading daily in order to build on their knowledge of different genres of writing and develop their vocabulary.
Each year, our children will progress through the text types, building on their bank of skills, understanding and purpose. These include narrative – reading stories, narrative – writing composition, recount texts, non-chronological reports, persuasion texts, information texts – research skills, information texts – creating information texts, discussion texts, explanatory texts, instructions and poetry.
The teaching of spelling, punctuation and grammar will be infiltrated through sequences of lessons or as stand-alone lessons if need be.
At Pippins, we are on the journey of teaching children to write using cursive handwriting. Cursive writing teaches children to join letters in words a series of continuous flowing movements or patterns. Words can be written without taking the pencil off the page and the continuous style provides a directional left to right movement, which lessens the chance of reversing letters by eliminating the need to lift the pencil between letters. The spaces between words become distinct and distinction between upper and lower case is cleare
Impact
Assessment in writing is ongoing as teachers carry out in-depth assessment of children’s writing at the end of each unit, and highlight the age-related outcomes that have been achieved. Assessed pieces of writing will be published in a Big Writing book from September 2022. We should see a range of text types explored, as well as cross curricular writing as well.
On a more personal note, children have been given a portable Writing target sheet so they are aware of what element they need to work on; once achieved, this is ticked by the teacher. Children may have 1 or 2 targets on their card at a time, this may be chosen by the teacher, or with the teacher.
Otrack is used to gain an overview of specific groups of children across school and any progress they make with the year. Any children not achieving Age Related Expectation are then identified to ensure targeted interventions can be implemented. Otrack data for writing is recorded every half term based on teacher assessment.
Progress across classes is closely monitored by the subject leader and the senior leadership team. Monitoring will include: regular book looks, lesson drop ins, gathering evidence of good practice, pupil voice interviews, looking at data on Otrack, moderations between phases and the Cluster of Schools and regular learning walks. The findings of this monitoring will be used to inform next steps for the children and the implementation of writing across the school as a whole.
By the end of Year Six, our pupils will be able to write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. They will acquire a wide vocabulary and have a strong command of the written word. Most importantly, they will develop a love of writing and be well equipped for the rest of their education.