Writing

Intent

At Shay Lane Primary School, we believe that every child will become a compelling writer by being given stimulating and engaging purposes and using a range of cross curricular narratives as hooks. Our pupils will find themselves inspired as they are challenged by a variety of appealing writing purposes that are brought to life through each subject area of the curriculum. These opportunities will encourage confident and capable writers whose enthusiasm for writing will flourish as they put pen to paper for the topics they love. They will write to express themselves in a range of contexts and will learn how to communicate independently for each one effectively. They will reflect on their own and others’ writing and build a deep understanding of what makes excellent written pieces for their reader while developing a growing bank of vocabulary and writing styles.

* Policy Document *

Implementation

Writing within RWI Sessions

As with reading, the alphabetic code is embedded first, so that children can write simple words early on and build on their success. The children write every day, rehearsing out loud what they want to write, and composing sentence by sentence, until they are confident enough to write independently. They write at the level of their spelling knowledge: that is, they use their knowledge of the alphabetic code and the ‘tricky’ words they have learnt. They practise handwriting everyday: sitting at a table comfortably, learning correct letter formation and writing speedily.

In every lesson, children build up their spelling knowledge rapidly so that soon they are able to spell complex words confidently. The children can use adventurous vocabulary in their writing because they have encountered such language in their reading and they have talked about what the words mean.

Transcription

Children learn to:

develop a confident handwriting style;
spell common words with common graphemes and suffixes;
spell common words with unusual graphemes;
write prepared sentences with correct spelling and punctuation.

Composition

Children learn to:

build and rehearse their own sentences based on ideas from the story;
apple new grammar concepts linked to the story;
use new vocabulary in their writing;
edit their writing to correct their grammar and punctuation;
write a composition based on the Storybook they have just read;
edit their own and their partner’s writing.

Writing Across the School

Independent writing

A ‘Big Write’ is carried out in an English lesson at the end of a unit, after a build-up of teaching and learning on a specific genre of writing. Some genres of writing link directly to the text driver for the half term and will be taught during English lessons; however, other genres of writing may have a topic link and independent writing opportunities will extend through to other subjects.