Intent

At Eastlands Primary School, 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; English learning is key in this.

We aim to ensure all of our children develop a genuine love of language and the written word, through a text-based approach; this links closely to the way we teach reading, as the text that we use in writing lessons, where possible, is one of the texts we use to also develop their reading skills.

Careful links are made across the curriculum where possible, to ensure that children’s English learning is relevant and meaningful. We ensure that children 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 and consider the audience
• See themselves as real writers
• Acquire the ability to organise and plan their written work
• Take ownership of their writing through learning how to be reflective writers by proof reading and editing their writing
• See writing as an interesting and enjoyable process

Implementation
Our whole curriculum is shaped by our school values which aim to enable all children, regardless of background, ability, additional needs to flourish and to become the very best version of themselves they can possibly be, through perseverance, setting themselves high expectations and taking responsibility for their own learning.  

We teach the National Curriculum, supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression as shown through each year’s Writing Key Performance Indicators. These ensure that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children.

The sequencing of Writing lessons follows a structure, enabling pupils to spend time immersed in their learning and developing appropriate skills and knowledge before producing pieces of writing.

We aim to develop children’s ability to produce well-structured, detailed writing in which the meaning is made clear and which engages the interest of the audience / reader. Particular attention is paid throughout the school to the formal structures of English: grammatical detail, punctuation and spelling. Teachers clearly model writing skills and document the learning journey through consistent working walls; guided writing sessions are used to target specific needs of both groups and individuals. Children have opportunities to write in short bursts and at length, in order to apply their taught skills.

Teachers are able to make their own professional judgements using knowledge of their own Class/Year Group when choosing an appropriate stimulus. However, Staff may use Power of Reading texts and plans too.  The length of a ‘sequence’ may vary. Children are reminded to reflect on previous learning within the sequence in order to bring a range of skills, knowledge and experiences together for written pieces.

Pupils are taught grammar and punctuation skills appropriate to their year group, within our text-based approach to planning, allowing opportunities to identify, practice and consolidate grammatical  understanding, whilst also being immersed in a text. Children then apply the grammar and punctuation skills that they have learnt in their own pieces of writing.

English Writing Subject Drivers

Impact

Formative assessment

Formative assessment in writing comes in the form of verbal or written feedback and by our daily Feedforward sheets, in line with the school’s Assessment and Feedback Policy. Emphasis within feedback is placed on what went well, identifying any errors in Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation skills used and then will move children into the next lesson using a moving on task. Editing sessions are used as part of the writing sequence to provide individual, group and whole class feedback, with opportunities for pupils to proof read work and make corrections as well as improve their work further based on discussions/advice/self and peer assessment.

Summative assessment

Writing Assessments are made in line with the school assessment policy. Key Performance Indicators have been created for each Year group and Writing grids have been created in line with the National Y2 and Y6 TAFs. These are used to make judgements on attainment and progress in each phase.

Half Termly Summative assessments are made and Pupil Progress Meetings with the Headteacher will discuss and identify any child/children who require them to be the focus for the next term. Termly writing moderations by the Staff in their phases and then independently by the English Subject Leader quality assures the judgements made

Yearly County Moderation Meetings are attended by Staff to ensure our children at Eastlands are maintaining the required standards and our judgements within school are accurate.

Monitoring

Provision for Writing is monitored through book looks, pupil discussions, staff audits, writing moderation, lesson drop-ins and data analysis. Book looks include English books and other curriculum books such as Theme and Science books.

By the time our children leave our school they will have:

• Made good progress from their EYFS and KS1 results
• Have a love for writing and write for enjoyment
• Be able to produce written work in all areas of the curriculum to a high standard
• Be confident to write for a range of different purposes

Creative Writing

Punctuation

Spelling and Grammar