Writing

Writing: Led by Mrs Prinold

Writing

At Wrockwardine Wood Infant School and Oakengates Nursery Federation we believe that the study of English develops children’s abilities to listen, speak and write for a wide range of purposes, using language to learn and communicate ideas, views and feelings.  It enables children to express themselves creatively and imaginatively, as they become enthusiastic and critical writers of stories, poetry and information texts.

Curriculum Intent

Writing gives children a voice to share their ideas and communicate their thoughts with the world. Our children come to school with very differing experiences, and we believe children need to find pleasure in reading so they themselves wish to be authors and writers. Through reading children enter worlds beyond their personal experience creating a sense of wonder and imagination to inspire their own writing. Reading ignites children’s curiosity and a sense of fascination about characters, places, and facts so they can create their own when writing. Reading encourages children to think critically about how authors manipulate language in a variety of ways to clarify and enhance meaning which acts as a good model for children’s own writing. Authors present different levels of interpretation and alternative viewpoints prompting children’s creative thinking when they write. Through stories, poems and information texts children come to experience a wide vocabulary in context and hear words and phrases which they can ‘magpie’ for their own writing.  We believe children need to ‘think’, ‘feel’ and live experiences before putting pencil to paper so they have a real purpose for their writing. We want our children to develop into confident, able writers who see the value of, find pleasure in, the writing process. We will equip children with the skills they need to be able to orally rehearse, plan, compose, revise, and evaluate the writing process.  We have high expectations for all children within our school, so they make good progress in their writing.

Curriculum Implementation

To ensure children develop a love of writing and gain the knowledge and skills they need to be an effective writer we will:

  • ensure teachers receive professional development to gain the necessary subject knowledge to teach children the writing process.
  • plan our writing curriculum in a progressive way so children build on what they already know and can do.
  • ensure children write for a real purpose and reason.
  • immerse children in high-quality texts and encourage each child to think of themselves as an author.
  • teach writing through a range of exciting stimuli including film clips, artefacts, visitors and meaningful real-life and first-hand experiences.
  • model the writing process daily to support children’s writing and make expectations clear.
  • provide children with opportunities to develop a rich vocabulary to bring their writing to life.
  • use a systematic synthetic phonic scheme called Floppy’s Phonics to support the teaching of early spelling.
  • teach punctuation and grammar explicitly.
  • teach the children how to proof-read and check their writing makes sense and then, how to make revisions and additions to improve their writing.
  • give children opportunities to write in varied genre including narrative, poetry, instructions, persuasive, non-fiction reports and newspapers.
  • give children opportunities to develop and apply their writing skills across the curriculum.
  • use a rigorous, sequential teaching approach to teach handwriting.
  • encourage children to hold a pencil effectively, using the tripod grip in almost all cases.
  • provide opportunities for children to acquire adequate strength, dexterity and coordination to form legible letter.
  • encourage children to:
    • form lower-case letters of the correct size relative to one another and use spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters
    • begin to use some of the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed to join letters
    • develop a sense of pride in the presentation of their work and realise the importance of clear and neat handwriting in order to communicate meaning clearly.

Please click the links below to access the following documents for Writing:

Writing Policy

Year 1 Long Term Plan

Year 2 Long Term Plan 

Knowledge and Skills Progression