Role play, drama techniques and experience days are used to excite, inspire and challenge children to deepen their understanding of the writing focus, whilst exposing them to a wider range of vocabulary. An emphasis is placed on sentence construction and structure as well as appropriate and effective language choices.

Intent

At St. Bartholomew’s Primary school, we believe that all pupils should be able to confidently communicate their knowledge and ideas, and express emotions, through their writing.

We want all pupils, regardless of ability, to have the opportunity 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 have learnt throughout their time here. We want them to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.

Every child is encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their work, in part by developing a clear, neatly joined handwriting style, by the time they move to secondary school.

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, editing their work effectively during and after the writing process.

We understand the importance of home in supporting children to develop their writing skills; we want to encourage a partnership which enables parents and carers to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school, particularly elements of grammar, spelling and composition.

Implementation

We teach English as whole class lessons, so that all children have access to the age-related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum. Teachers plan for targeted support in order for all pupils to achieve during lessons and over a sequence of learning, applying learning and producing work which is to the best of their ability, no matter their background.

Opportunities are provided for pupils to extend their work 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 grammatical features.

Teachers at St. Bartholomew’s are beginning to adopt and utilise the ‘Write Stuff’ approach with a clear focus and emphasis being placed on sentence structure, composition and purpose.

Pupils’ current understanding is assessed through a variety of methods; daily feedback provides all pupils with support as to their strengths and areas that need to be developed further, culminating in an independent piece of writing placing the pupils as sole creators. Detailed planning documents guide teachers on which text types to teach across the year.

Impact

We want all pupils at St. Bartholomew’s Primary School, to engage with and enjoy writing across a range of genres. Children of all abilities are able to succeed in English lessons because learning is appropriately scaffolded.

Pupils have exposure to a vocabulary rich environment and utilising sources of words and wording is modelled, with a view to demonstrating an understanding of the context and intended audience. Children are encouraged to both select and collect words to use in their own work, developing an understanding of the positive and negative ‘tone’ of language to support their ability to develop and adapt pieces of writing as appropriate.