Writing

At St Mary’s, we strive to help our children develop into articulate and imaginative communicators, who are well-equipped with the basic skills they need to become life-long learners.

Writing Intent

We believe that English learning is key to this. We aim to ensure that all of our children develop a genuine love of language and the written word, through a text-based, values rich approach.

We want our children to feel that their writing has a real purpose in the context our values based learning projects and to use their written work as an expression of their responses to challenging questions.

We aim for all children to develop an understanding of how widely writing is used in everyday life and, therefore, how important and useful the skills are that they are learning.
Our intentions in writing are for children to:

Write for a purpose
See themselves as real writers
Take ownership of their writing
See writing as an interesting and enjoyable process
Acquire the ability to organise and plan their written work

Through exploring project questions, which challenge our pupils and develop their moral compasses’, we want our children to learn to write for a range of purposes within the context of their learning. Ultimately, we aim for our pupils to see writing as an important form of communication, which they can use to connect with others.

Writing Implementation

At St Mary’s, writing is taught in a progressive and systematic way, beginning in Reception and Year One with the ‘Little Wandle’ phonics programme and then later through meeting the aims of the National Curriculum.

Our writing approach is based on developing our children’s fluency as writers and engaging them through exciting learning sequences where children develop: spelling, vocabulary, grammar and their own authorial voice.

In English lessons we study the work of great writers, from speech makers and novelists to historical letters and information books.

Early Writing:

In Reception, Year 1 and the first half term of Year 2, children are taught to write and spell through our Systematic, Synthetic Phonics programme (Little Wandle) and they write on a daily basis in their phonic lessons. In Reception, teachers plan for writing skill development outside of direct teaching time via the continuous provision. Stimuli for writing are planned into the provision and enhancements to the provision are planned for. Practitioners take writing objectives into the provision by using an ‘Objective Led’ teaching approach. For example: a teacher might engage with children in the small world role play and then introduce a map for the journey the characters are going on, to encourage mark making and fine motor development and then might suggest labels for the places they visit and support transcription using a phonics mat. As children become more proficient in segmenting for spelling, wider opportunities and more enhancements are planned into the provision.

Years 1 – 6:

English lessons are taught daily across the school. A common short-term sequence has been developed by Senior Leaders over several years based on our own research into what works best for our pupils. The sequence allows us to develop the context of a text: we read and appreciate its content, learn and engage with the related vocabulary, revise grammar already taught (in context), teach new grammar (in context), practice grammar (sometimes in pairs and groups), plan our writing, write (sometimes in pairs and groups), edit with others or in response to feedback from adults and sometimes publish work.

Medium Term Planning and the sequence of units is crucial to the projects that our children study and how we explore both our Project Values and our Project Questions. Links between English and other subjects are actively used to embed language and the development of authorial voice.

Children are given the tools to take ownership of their progress in writing, through school-wide use of models and tools for self-assessment and teacher feedback. The fundamentals of secure sentence writing, accurate punctuation and a flow of ideas that makes sense are prioritised by children and adults as everyone understands writing can be truly successful and impactful once these foundations are secure.

Handwriting and Spelling

Securing handwriting and spelling skills is essential for unlocking the world of writing and written expression. In Key Stage One, both are taught daily as children build these secure foundations for Key Stage Two.

Handwriting

Developing a confident, legible and personal handwriting style is essential for pupils as they move through the school, enabling them to capture their ideas, transferring the voice and imagination to paper with ease and automaticity.

We follow the Nelson handwriting scheme from Reception to Year 6 to ensure a comprehensive and coherent progression in taught skills. Lessons are structured to create the conditions for good writing, with emphasis placed on atmosphere, position and posture. Pencil grip is taught and practiced so that all pupils are able to write with control and without discomfort or strain.

As pupils progress through the programme, they build their ability to:

Correctly form upper and lower case letters, and digits
Learn how to join different letters and which letters are best left unjoined
Develop their own style of handwriting
Build their stamina and speed for writing legibly
Experiment with different styles of writing for different purposes.

Spelling

Our spelling curriculum is designed to provide a broad and balanced education that meets the needs of all children. We follow Ready Steady Spell by Literacy Counts to ensure that all pupils become fluent, accurate spellers. Our spelling curriculum is research-informed and impact-proven, helping children secure the essential skills and strategies they need to spell confidently across the curriculum. Through engaging activities, consistent teaching routines and regular opportunities to revisit prior learning, we help children move spelling knowledge into their long-term memory. Our aim is to build confident writers who are equipped with the tools they need to communicate clearly and effectively. Spelling is taught in a clear and systematic way, with regular reviews and assessments.

Pupils who need more support or teaching to build their spelling skills are supported in a number of ways. Following robust assessment to understand each pupil’s next steps, we draw on a range of interventions and approaches:

Targeted small group or one to one interventions
Continued teaching of phonics for pupils working through Little Wandle ‘Keep Up’
Collaboration and communication with families to share strategies and activities