Kingsholm C of E Primary School

Writing Policy

We believe that language underpins the whole curriculum. Effective writing comes from accessing a varied, experiential and enriched language curriculum which encompasses and exploits effective reading, writing and speaking and listening opportunities.

Aims

·  To provide an experiential curriculum which supports; coherence, consistency and continuity.

·  To develop the conventions of writing, including grammar, punctuation and spelling and embed these through genre writing.

·  To develop a passion for writing for various audiences.

·  To empower our children to be independent in their writing.

·  To develop letter formation, leading to a fluent and legible style – see handwriting policy.

·  To utilise ICT effectively to enhance writing abilities.

·  To raise children’s self-esteem by personalising provision to meet individual needs; creating a strong and caring approach to the teaching and learning of language.

Teaching and learning

The curriculum will provide creative and stimulating environments and opportunities for the children to experience and explore writing at their own pace with confidence and enjoyment. Writing is valued as a high priority activity which accesses the whole curriculum. Each year the children will be given opportunities to write in every genre. Teachers will use the genre specific ‘I can ladders’ to ensure continuity of skills, vocabulary and progression.

Using the teaching and learning principles of the New Primary Framework teachers will immerse the children in an experience; exploiting speaking and language opportunities, practice relevant genre skills and then provide the opportunity to write, at length, independently and with a purpose. Where relevant, the context will be underpinned by the current theme.

The motto of ‘THINK IT, SAY IT, WRITE IT, READ IT’ should be the principle behind all writing activities, whereby the children have had an opportunity to think about a context, talk about it, write about it, and read it back to themselves or the rest of the class. A strong emphasis is placed upon Speaking and Listening at the start of a new unit as the children are given opportunities to ‘talk the text type’ as suggested by Pi Corbett. As a cycle, this process will empower our children to develop their ‘writer’s voice.’ The children’s writing experiences should be varied to include; guided, modeled and independent opportunities. The context for these experiences should also be varied to include; whole class, grouped, paired and individual opportunities.

Our children should be able to plan, draft, revise, edit and publish (to print) their own work. Throughout the school Ros Wilson’s principles of effective writing; vocabulary, connective, openers and punctuation (VCOP) will be used as a strategy for ‘up levelling’ work through self, peer and adult marking.

Inclusion

All children will have equal access to the writing curriculum regardless of race, gender, class, religion or ability. Teachers should ensure that they provide access to a wide range of themes and stimuli to reflect and support different interests.

SEN

Writing is taught in mixed ability classes throughout the school. Children with special educational needs will be offered appropriate support which will be detailed on their individual educational plan (IEP). All children will be supported through differentiated approached to achieve age expected outcomes. When a child is identified as having a specific learning difficulty (SLD) in Literacy they are taught in the ‘Tree House’ (capacity dependent) – a targeted wave 2 provision led by the SENCo and a specialised teacher.

Assessment

Class teachers formatively assess the children’s work through the process of APP. Ros Wilson’s leveled sheets for assessing writing will inform teachers of a pupil’s current level and provide guidance how they can progress through the level. This ensures differentiated, personalised planning and the progression of skills. It therefore focuses teaching to improve the quality of writing.

Examples of written work from the whole school will be collected, leveled and kept in the writing portfolio. In addition there will be INSET moderation meetings throughout the year. These will be used as examples of standards achieved throughout the school. At three points in the year APP judgments are used summatively in the school’s trajectory tracker. The tracker data is strategically analysed by the Data Manager and the Literacy Leader to inform whole school, cohort, class and individual priorities. The analysis is reported in a variety of mediums including formal reports and pupil progress meetings (PPM). Attainment in writing is reported annually to Parents / Carers in the child’s report. Progress comments are included to support the attainment levels. For further guidance please refer to the Assessment and Record Keeping policy and the AFL policy for Literacy.

Continuity and Progression

Foundation Stage

Our children are given a range of informal opportunities to develop their skills as writers. Thought is given to the physical lay out of the classroom and the materials that are available to the children. These include a range of writing tools and papers, a variety of appropriate word sources for the age of the children (alphabet charts, word wheels, word banks, dictionaries, thesauruses, spellcheckers), magnetic boards and letters, whiteboards / easels, appropriate word processing programs for the computer, individual and group prompt cards, independent writing activities (story starter cards, pre-prepared blank books, instructions for making simple books).

As children in the early years work towards full participation they develop their understanding of print through teacher modelling during shared writing, and write themselves during guided and independent sessions. It is important that early writers do not do too much directed writing activity on their own until skill levels increase. The children need to have experienced a process of familiarisation before moving to independent application. They have opportunities to write for a variety of purposes and audiences, and the links between spoken language, reading and writing are made explicit.

In the early years the children have daily opportunities to experiment with different types of writing through play activities. At first they emulate adult writing, ascribing purposes to the marks they make on paper and developing awareness that print carries meaning. With time and appropriate teacher intervention they write their own names and, as their understanding of sound-symbol relationships grow, they begin to include recognisable letter shapes. They write simple sentence-like structures and attempt familiar forms of writing such as lists, labels, captions, recounts and the text types introduced by the teacher during shared reading and writing.

Key Stage 1

At Key Stage 1 children become increasingly competent as writers. They write a full range of text types (narrative and non-fiction) but their degree of control over these forms varies according to the complexity of the task. Purposes, audiences and appropriate forms are identified and, through modeled and guided writing, the children have opportunities to plan, develop and review their writing both on paper and on screen.

Key Stage 2

At Key Stage 2 the children write for different purposes: to imagine and explore feelings and ideas, to entertain, to inform and explain, to persuade and to review and comment. They also see how writing is concerned with process as well as product, being an aid to thinking, organisation and learning. They are taught to plan, draft, revise, proof read and present their writing on paper and on screen, and to discuss and evaluate their own writing and that of others. There is an emphasis on using real models for writing, e.g. newspaper reports, advertisements, websites.

The links between reading and writing in fiction and non-fiction continue to be made explicit. Pupils use their knowledge of texts they have studied to construct their own writing and have greater control over organisation, language features, vocabulary and spelling.

April 2012