‘Good teaching over time has resulted in pupils of all groups making good progress in reading and writing.
This progress is clearly evident in the high quality work seen in pupils’ books’ (OFSTED 2015).
Writing
Intent
At Blakehill we believe that all pupils should be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing. We want pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time in primary school. We want them to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. We believe all pupils should understand the strong link between reading and writing. We believe that all pupils should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, in part by developing a good, joined, handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school. We believe that all good writers refine and edit their writing over time, so we want children to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement in all pieces of writing, editing their work effectively during and after the writing process. We do not put ceilings on what pupils can achieve in writing and we do not hold pre-conceptions about any pupils’ ability to make progress. We understand the importance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop and so we want to encourage a home-school partnership which enables them to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school.
Implementation
Classroom organisation:
We teach English as whole class lessons using a five phase teaching sequence and a high quality text or experience as a stimulus, so that all children have access to the age-related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum. Within lessons, teachers and teaching assistants support targeted children to enable them to achieve at an age-related level wherever possible. This may involve a greater level of scaffolding and access to additional support materials. More able pupils are given opportunities to extend their writing in a variety of ways, including through showing greater control in their writing, a deeper understanding of the impact that their writing has on the reader and by using a higher level of vocabulary and grammar features.
Spellings:
Spellings are taught according to the rules and words contained in Appendix 1 of the English National Curriculum. Teachers use the Babcock Spelling Scheme to support their teaching and to provide activities that link to the weekly spellings. Children are given spellings to learn each week and are given a spelling test the following week.
Grammar and Punctuation:
Grammar and punctuation knowledge and skills are taught through English lessons as much as possible. Teachers plan to teach the required skills through the genres of writing that they are teaching, linking it to the genre to make it more connected with the intended writing outcome. Teachers sometimes focus on particular grammar and punctuation skills as discrete lessons, if they feel that the class need additional lessons to embed and develop their understanding or to consolidate skills.
English Lesson Sequence:
Each year group have a yearly overview of the writing genres, both narrative and non-fiction, that they will teach. These have been planned to ensure correct coverage of the key genres as well as build on skills from year to year. Units will take between two and four weeks to complete, and the outcome of each unit will be an Extended Write which will be used to assess the pupil’s skills against the agreed criteria. Every unit is linked to a carefully chosen text or other experience e.g. a visit that acts as a stimulus for teaching the identified text, word and sentence level features that children will be expected to include in their extended writing outcome for that unit. A WAGOLL – What a good one looks like – is created based on the stimulus text and supports pupils to identify and use the identified features in their own writing.
See English Procedures
Assessment
Writing assessments are completed each half term. Teachers will use the school assessment criteria to determine whether a child is working within age-related expectations, above or below. The writing assessments will then be used to inform target setting and planning.
INTENDED IMPACT
- Pupils will enjoy writing across a range of genres and for different audiences
- Pupils of all abilities will be able to succeed in all English lessons because work will be appropriately scaffolded
- Pupils will have a wide vocabulary that they use within their writing
- Pupils will have a good knowledge of how to adapt their writing based on the context and audience
- Pupils will leave primary school being able to effectively apply spelling rules and patterns they have been taught
- The % of pupils working at ARE within each year group will be above National Average and in line with school milestones
- The % of pupils working at Greater Depth within each year group will be above National Average and in line with school milestones
- The will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils (e.g. disadvantaged vs non-disadvantaged)