English - Writing

Unlocking the writer in every child!

Intent

At St Columba’s, we understand how a strong grounding in English will impact the future learning and development of a pupil in all aspects of their life. We want to prepare children with the essential writing skills they will need for later life by providing an enriched and engaging English curriculum, where they write with a clear purpose across all subjects.

We intend:

To create confident writers who develop stamina for writing throughout school and are able to write at length.
For all of our children to be independent writers, building on a range of skills as they work through each journey of writing.
That all of our children are exposed to high quality texts that model excellent writing practises across a broad range of genres.
For our children to have a secure understanding of the purpose of a text type, the purpose and intended impact of writing skills/tools and the ability to carefully select vocabulary with focus on the desired effect on the readers’ thoughts and feelings so that the impact of their writing is positive.
Ensure that all pupils know how to plan, practise, evaluate their work as well as carry out an effective edit and improvement process using feedback from the teacher.
That our children are challenged and encouraged to take risks and view mistakes as a positive part of the learning process.
To celebrate writing at each stage through the learning process to encourage children to take pride in their work.
To provide a balanced and broad curriculum, which encompasses writing practice and equips children with the skills and knowledge of writing processes including handwriting, spelling, grammar, widening vocabulary and writing for different styles.
To be inclusive of all children, including SEND by providing the appropriate scaffolding, support and writing tools those children need in their writing process to experience success.
That our children have high expectations of themselves where they take pride in all aspects of learning and in everything they produce.

Implementation

Handwriting

Cursive handwriting teaches pupils to join letters in words as a series of continuous flowing movements or patterns and children are taught cursive handwriting from Reception onwards. Words can be written without taking the pencil off the page. Continuous style provides a directional left, right movement. This flowing, rhythmical movement aids speed and fluency particularly when practised from Foundation level with the final product being neat and fast. This cursive style also 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 clearer. Pupils with specific learning disabilities find continuous cursive useful because the pencil stays on the page throughout every word, thus simplifying the movement. Children with motor problems learn a series of easy, rhythmical movements, which help to improve fine motor co-ordination.

Spelling

At St Columba’s, we believe that spelling has a direct effect upon progress in all other areas of the curriculum and is crucial to developing a child’s confidence, motivation and self-esteem. We provide children with a range of spelling strategies throughout school which cater for different learning style. Early spelling is taught through phonic work in Early Years, Foundation and Key Stage 1 using Letters and Sounds. As children move from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2, the emphasis shifts from the teaching of phonics to more focused teaching of spelling strategies, conventions and rules to build upon the children’s established phonic knowledge. However, phonic support and intervention is still provided in Key Stage 2 to those children who need it. School has also implemented the Read Write Inc. Spelling scheme for years 2 to 6 which is for the explicit teaching and learning of spelling rules. Once children have been taught the rules, they can then use them in their writing.

Writing Process

Each unit of writing will consist of learning done through a 2 week learning journey and will be done through 1 hour lessons each day from Monday to Friday. This is in order to ensure that the build-up of knowledge and skills is progressive and clear. Although the pedagogical process is detailed for each lesson, teachers have the professional scope to make adjustments where they think they are needed. For example, if more than one lesson is needed to embed a skill then this can be done or if an extra lesson is needed for drama/speaking and listening then teachers have the freedom to do so. Each stage of the learning process is evident through books, learning environment, planning and pupil voice discussions. Learning journeys are usually based on high quality texts but we also use videos, real life events, images or lyrics from a song (anything that might get the children excited about writing).

Impact

The children will:

understand the writing process
be able to identify the audience, purpose and tone of their writing
be able to link their writing to high quality texts
be able to effectively edit their writing
have high aspirations and take pride in their writing.