Intent

We believe that writing is a key skill for life both inside and out of education and that is why it features across all the subjects taught across our school. Our aim is to provide children with key transferrable writing skills to build on year on year, that can be used throughout each phase of their education and prepare them for secondary school and beyond. 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, see themselves as real writers, take ownership of their writing, see writing as an interesting and enjoyable process and acquire the ability to organise and plan their written work.

Implementation

We use Talk for Writing to encourage pupils to express their ideas, discuss their ideas and to develop more sophisticated vocabulary. We develop writing skills so that our children have the stamina and ability to write at the age expected standard. To support children in moving towards independent writing we provide a wide range of activities including the use of film and imagery, music, ICT, modelled, shared and guided writing, peer assessment and discussion. We provide varied and exciting opportunities for writing for purpose and we encourage pupils to see themselves as authors and poets. We promote the importance of written work by providing a writing purpose and opportunities for children’s writing to be read aloud and listened to by an audience. We promote the importance of writing throughout the school as well as across all taught subjects within the curriculum. Throughout the school we provide children opportunities to write independently within a given purpose.  From Foundation, children are taught a wide range of writing genres as well as sentence construction. Cross-curricular writing themes are embedded within the learning cycles as well as writing in response to work around high quality texts both fiction and non-fiction.

• Working Walls are used in all classes to aid pupils and guide them through the process of reading and analysing, gathering content, planning and writing.
• Vocabulary is promoted through displays in class, all curriculum areas, enhancing and encouraging a wider use of vocabulary.
• Vocabulary mats are used where needed and thesauruses and dictionaries which are easily accessible for pupils to use.
• Teaching encompasses a range of genres across the school (progressing in difficulty) both in English and other curriculum areas; resulting in pupils being exposed to, and knowledgeable about, literary styles, authors and genres. They can express preferences and give opinions, supported by evidence, about different texts.
• Displays of writing, in class, shared areas and on the school website, giving a purpose and audience, to encourage pride in work and to show that work is valued.
• Reading and writing events (throughout the year) to encourage and promote enjoyment and opportunities to develop lifelong learning.

Spelling 

As the children move from using phonetic decoding, we use Shakespeare Spelling as a basis for teaching the variety of spelling rules that the English language follows, and often does not follow!
We continue to value the importance of learning to spell in a variety of ways that promote active and memorable learning.  Half termly spelling lists are sent home so that parents can support their children’s learning. Spelling lists are in all curriculum books at school so that children can refer to them as they write and use their new spellings in their writing. 
 Children that need extra support with spelling work one to one or in a small group with an adult to follow Lexican, a precision teaching spelling programme. 

Handwriting

Children from Year 1 upwards are taught cursive handwriting which is used throughout the school, good presentation is supported and praised in all areas of learning. Children follow the Nelson Handwriting Scheme to support the correct letter formation. 

Impact

With the implementation of the writing framework being well established and taught thoroughly in Foundation and both Key Stage One and Two, children are becoming more confident writers and by the time they are in upper Key Stage 2, most genres of writing are familiar to them and the teaching can focus on creativity, writer’s craft, sustained writing and manipulation of grammar and punctuation skills. 
Long term, pupils will:

• enjoy writing across a range of genres
• pupils of all abilities will be able to succeed in all English lessons because work will be appropriately scaffolded
• have a wide vocabulary and be adventurous with vocabulary choices within their writing
• have a good knowledge of how to adapt their writing based on the context and audience
• leave primary school being able to effectively apply spelling rules and patterns they have been taught
• pupils acquire strategies to enable them to become independent learners in English
• make good and better progress from their starting points to achieve their full potential