Broughton and West Tytherley Primary Schools

Writing Policy

Vision

Our curriculum at Broughton and West Tytherley Primary Schools encompasses the following aims in order to meet the needs of our children and the English curriculum is the vehicle to bring these aims to life:

Intent

ENGAGE – Proactively engage children in their education and help them to be responsible for their successes and achievements both academically and socially

• Class teachers will plan using inspiring text drivers which offer children a stimulating starting point for writing and reading. An immersive text-led curriculum inspires and stimulates children and allows them to make links between other areas of the curriculum. 

EVALUATE – They will have the ability to evaluate the choices they can make and make conscious decisions based on these evaluations.

• Children are provided with continuous opportunities to learn from their experiences and editing is a significant part of the evaluation process. Throughout the school, children are taught the skills to edit and improve their writing so that they are equipped with the tools to make amendments independently – these revisions are made in green pen. There is always time devoted to feedback, review, consult and reflect in the writing process so that it is purposeful and effective. 

EMPOWER – The children will feel empowered and unafraid of challenge or initial failure

• At Broughton and West Tytherley Primary Schools, our learning values encourage children to take ownership of themselves to empower their learning. These values, which are supported by staff around the school, recognise individuals showing resilience by being a ‘have a go hero’, having control by being ‘in the driving seat’, being kind to others and ‘spreading sunshine’ and showing innovation by ‘thinking outside the box’. These encouraged values are not only celebrated by adults but promote independence for the children. Children feel most empowered when they access learning that is pitched appropriately so it is important that children are provided with the adequate level of support and challenge.

REPONSIBLE – The children will have a developed sense of shared responsibility for things outside their immediate person.

• During our English lessons, children are encouraged to use resources that have been made available to them. Working walls with vocabulary to magpie, scaffolds to stimulate writing, teacher modelling and WAGOLLs are just a few of the tools on offer to aid children’s writing. This extends to reading also where children are encouraged to take up the various reading initiatives that are endorsed in school. When children take responsibility for their learning leads to personal development and a sense of pride in the hard work produced and newly acquired skills. 

ENJOYMENT – The children will love/ look forward to coming to school (the majority of the time!)

At Broughton and West Tytherley Primary Schools, we aim to foster children who have an enjoyment for writing. We ensure that we include a variety of opportunities which are diverse and inspiring to embed the children’s learning. More varied in school experiences such as book clubs run by children, reading breakfasts and book swaps have all been introduced this year in the hope of instilling a passion for English in children. 

Implementation

At Broughton and West Tytherley Primary Schools, we aim to develop motivated and independent writers: those who write with understanding and purpose. 

At the start of school, it is very important that the children are ready developmentally to write. Writing follows talk and reading. In order for a child to write something, they need to be able to say it first. This is achieved through a programme of play where young children learn to interact, talk and understand as well as develop physically. During the first term of Year R our main focus is the prime areas by providing opportunities for talk. 

Throughout Reception, the physical development of children’s gross and fine motor skills are a primary focus in the children’s learning and are explored through various interactive and engaging activities inside and outside of the classroom. These aim to leave children negotiating space and obstacles safely, demonstrating strength and moving energetically e.g., running, jumping, dancing, hopping  skipping and climbing in order to develop their gross motor skills. To develop children’s fine motor skills, they work on using a range of small tools including scissors, paintbrushes and cutlery and begin to show accuracy and care when drawing. Holding a pencil effectively in preparation for fluent writing is also focussed on through activities that are interwoven into the curriculum and provision. 

Phonic learning and letter formation matches this provision with drawing around large letters on the black board or painting with water. Writing resources also match the children’s physical strength. Large writing materials are used and over time these are refined down to finer and smaller materials in order to develop handwriting speed, fluency

and legibility.

In order for the children to become motivated and independent writers they need to write with understanding and purpose. When planning writing units, class teachers ensure there is interplay between purpose, audience and form.

Motivating Writers

Children are motivated to write through:

• Engaging texts for inspiration: Our curriculum is text-led and all planning across the year incorporates rich text drivers which ensure progression and builds on cultural capital. These high-quality texts serve as WAGOLLs for the children to inspire and encourage them in their own writing. 
• Use of ‘real’ purposes and audiences: At Broughton and West Tytherley Primary SchoolsBroughton, we believe children will be more invested if what they are doing has a clear purpose. One of our curriculum drivers is ‘real life learner’ and this is a primary focus when planning to ensure that all of our outcomes are as authentic as possible for the children. Writing journeys are planned with real life audiences, where possible, whether that is to other children within the school, parents through assemblies or even, as Year 6 do, sending work off to authors such as J.K Rowling! 
• Engaging hooks and purposeful outcomes: Each writing journey will begin with a hook to provide an experience for the children to support them with their writing. This could be a Sunny breaking into school (KS1), a dinosaur intrusion (LKS2) or even a letter from the Ministry of Magic (UKS2). Children are more enthusiastic and immersed in their writing when it is taken beyond the classroom or involved an intriguing event/hook. 
• Multi-media: Technology has proved successful at motivating writers. iPads, cameras and laptops are regularly used within writing journeys. 
• Cross curricular opportunities: Our writing journeys, where possible, link to other areas of the curriculum which, we find, makes for a more immersive experience for the children. For example, Street Child by Berlie Doherty is used as a text driver used in one of UKS2’s writing journeys whilst they are learning about the Victorians in history. 

Learning Journey

In each class, the writing learning journey is central to the teaching. The purpose and audience are made clear to the children at the start of each writing journey and is reinforced throughout the journey’s entirety. In each classroom there is an English working wall. This will incorporate all the skills they will be learning within the unit. Each day, English lessons begin with a grammar starter which is planned by teachers in line with the schools' grammar progression document. Each step of the writing journey is then displayed on the wall towards the outcome. This is done with the intention that children understand how one lesson builds on another within the progression of lessons. Teachers plan from the National Curriculum objectives alongside the Hampshire Assessment model.  

Each class has a long-term plan which outlines the learning journeys with writing outcomes to be completed over the year, referring to the quality texts. Grammar objectives and focus spellings are incorporated within these to give teachers further guidance when planning. Within each learning journey, there are ‘site of application’ and apprentice writing opportunities built in. These pieces of writing require the children to apply previously learnt skills of a different form from a previous unit without any direct teaching. There are an increasing number of ‘site of application’ and apprentice pieces across the year to enable pupils to apply their learning and see skills transferred to a new context. These ‘site of application’ and apprentice outcomes enables teachers to assess what learning pupils retained and can apply independently. For pupils, they provide spaced practice, strengthening learning over the year. This is a progressive cyclical learning approach where learning is revisited over the course of the year, deepening their understanding each time.

Impact

Assessment

Assessments are made by the teachers continuously and used to plan subsequent lessons. Live marking within lessons drives immediate feedback and adaptations to learning. Children are assessed in spelling, punctuation and grammar on a termly basis. These help the identification of Data drops happen three times a year and are reported to parents through parent consultations and reports across the year. Writing moderations with other schools as well as book looks ensure that writing is in line with the expectation.