English Writing

OUR AIMS

We want our pupils to:

• Respect themselves, respect others, respect all property, and respect their community and the World around them.
• Have a positive attitude that encourages self-belief and confidence
• Achieve high standards in all areas of the curriculum.
• Respond to challenges and seize new experiences whole–heartedly.
• Take an active lead in their own learning and development throughout their life.
• Develop the spirit of enquiry leading to life-long learning.

ENGLISH AT CHESWICK GREEN

At Cheswick Green, we recognise that being fully secure in the four areas of English (Speaking and listening, reading and writing) is the foundation for learning effectively across the curriculum. Therefore, we continually strive to provide quality teaching and learning opportunities for children to acquire these essential skills.  We immerse the children in a rich, creative English curriculum which is linked to other areas of study through engaging projects. We believe that learning is most effective in a meaningful and purposeful environment, through experiences and opportunities that contextualise learning

OUR VISION FOR WRITING AT CHESWICK GREEN

At Cheswick Green, we want children to learn the craft of writing and develop a passion for writing as a way of communicating with others and expressing themselves. It is our vision that children will be inspired by the engaging and stimulating writing opportunities that we provide and that they will be equipped with the skills and tools to write effectively for a range of purposes.

WRITING CURRICULUM INTENT  

At Cheswick Green we want children to be able to communicate their knowledge, and ideas confidently through their writing. It is our intention for the children to:

• Acquire a wide vocabulary, and an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for writing.
• Be exposed to a range of engaging writing opportunities so that they develop a love of writing.
• Be exposed to rich and varied vocabulary though real and engaging texts which can be drawn upon within their own writing.
• Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences

WRITING CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION

Phonics and emergent writing form the basis of English lessons in Foundation and children are taught to understand the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics). In the Early Years, we think it is initially important for pupils acquire a wide vocabulary and a secure understanding of grammar and sentence structures verbally. We encourage the children to speak in full sentences and understand the meaning of words so that they are able to transfer these skills to writing as they progress through their education. We want them to be able to spell new words by effectively applying spelling patterns and rules and to be able to carefully and skilfully select the appropriate language structures and vocabulary to reflect the purpose and audience.

Children are gradually introduced to more challenging spelling patterns and word structures in line with the requirements of the national curriculum. From year 2 onwards, we use Twinkl planning to support our teaching of spelling patterns, rules and spelling strategies. 

From Foundation we begin to teach the cursive handwriting script and by the end of KS1, we strive to ensure that all children are using the joined, handwriting script across the curriculum. (see Handwriting Policy)

An increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and punctuation is taught both implicitly and explicitly from Year 1 through to Year 6 using the appendices in the New National Curriculum.  Staff support the teaching of grammar within discrete lessons alongside purposeful writing opportunities to apply this knowledge. Children develop the vocabulary necessary to talk about their writing and they begin to recognise the different ways that sentences can be structured for effect.

Through our engaging projects, children are provided with a wealth of opportunities to write for real and engaging purposes linked to other areas of the curriculum. Throughout the school, rich engaging texts are used as models for the children’s writing. When developing the children’s writing staff plan a range of experiential opportunities aimed at inspiring the children to write and with a focus on the craft of writing. Staff use a range of inspirational ideas using DVD clips, visitors, visits, drama or outdoor learning to engage the children.

We believe that all good writers refine and edit their writing over time, so in an age appropriate way, we want children to be able to identify their own areas for improvement in pieces of writing, so that they can edit their work effectively during and after the writing process. We want children to understand and learn the craft of writing so that they plan produce and publish something of which they are proud. Opportunities for children to draft, edit and improve their writing are regularly planned into sequences of lessons.

WRITING CURRICULUM IMPACT

We measure the impact of writing through both formative and summative assessment. In line with our ‘Effective Feedback’ policy children are actively engaged in the process of measuring their own progress through regular self and peer assessment within lesson. Staff give regular feedback both through live feedback during lessons and within regular written feedback.

Children complete a piece of independent writing on a half termly basis which is completed in a Writing progess book which allows us to track and measure impact over time.

Staff use detailed writing moderation criteria to track the progress of benchmark children and samples of writing are regularly moderated both internally and by staff attending external local authority  moderations. This robust process allows us to ensure that our teaching and assessment of writing is consistent across the school and local authority.

The English subject leader is responsible for the continuous monitoring of the English curriculum including the development of planning across year groups. The English subject leader assesses the quality of provision through:

• Lesson observations
• Informal drop-ins
• Book Scrutinies
• Pupil discussions.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES IN WRITING

Where children have a physical disability or have SEND, we aim to provide resources and learning experiences that will support their learning in writing. We do this by setting suitable learning challenges, responding to each child’s different needs and providing learning opportunities that enable all pupils to make progress.

Activities should be carefully planned by the class teacher and be differentiated where appropriate for children with SEN and equally the more able and Gifted and Talented children. All resources/materials have been reviewed with equal opportunities in mind, e.g. race, gender, ethnicity. Learning experiences in music will be available to every child, regardless of race, gender, class or ability. Pupils will be encouraged to value social and cultural diversity through musical experiences. They will listen to, and participate in, a variety of experiences in a positive and constructive role.

INCLUSION

Inclusion is about every child having educational needs, that every child is special and the School is meeting these diverse needs in order to ensure the active participation and progress of all children in their learning.

Inclusive practice in writing should enable all children to achieve their best possible standard; whatever their ability, and irrespective of gender, ethnic, social or cultural background, home language or any other aspect that could affect their participation in, or progress in their learning. 

We recognise that in all classes, children have a wide range of writing ability, and so we seek to provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this in a variety of ways:

• setting tasks which are open-ended and can have a variety of responses;
• setting tasks of increasing difficulty;
• grouping children by ability and setting different tasks for each group;
• grouping children in mixed ability groups;
• providing resources of different complexity, depending on the ability of the child;
• overcoming barriers to physically writing by using technology for children to record their ideas on such as a laptop, talking tin or Ipad.
• using adults to support the work of individuals or groups of children to complete guided or shared writing.