Writing

 Intent

The intent for writing at Bradley Barton is to ensure that children leave primary school with a secure knowledge of the grammatical structures that make up a sentence. They should draw upon their reading to produce creative and imaginative pieces of writing suited to a range of different genres acknowledging that writing is a pleasurable struggle.

We aim to ensure all of our children develop a genuine love of language and the written word, through a text-based approach. We encourage our children to reflect upon their writing and consider ways in which to edit and improve, understanding that mistakes are to be celebrated and utilised. Careful links are made across the curriculum to ensure that children’s English learning is relevant and meaningful: where possible linking our reading, writing and the topic that we are covering in History and Geography. 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, acquire the ability to organise, plan and edit their written work.

Implementation

In EYFS, writing starts in Nursery with mark making. Mark making can take many forms: writing with chalks, paint, in sand and with large scale movements on the wall or floor. ‘Writing’ starts with children making marks with pens, maybe 'writing' shopping lists, postcards, birthday cards or making marks to represent the letters in their name. Children will then start copying the correct letters in their name.

School starter children will be introduced to our Read Write inc programme. They will learn letter shapes and begin to identify sounds. This will support them in writing initial sounds and simple words such as 'dog' and 'cat.'

From Nursery through to Reception, children are taught Literacy through a three part sequence. They will read as a reader, read as a writer and write as an author. Children focus on a high quality text to inspire their writing and end each sequence by completing a progress write. Writing targets are individual and shared with each child. They work towards their targets through a combination of adult and child led activities. 

 By the end of Reception, children will be using their phonic knowledge to write labels, captions, sentences and short narrative stories. 

From Year 1 to Year 6, writing is taught through a text-based writing scheme. The scheme follows three weeks: Week 1, they will be 'Reading as a reader,' Week 2: 'Reading as a writer' and Week 3: 'Writing as an author'.  At the end of unit the children complete a 'hot write' where the children independently write this text to show the progress they have made throughout the unit of work.

We use ‘No nonsense’ spelling plans from Year 1 upwards to inform our teaching. Grammar is incorporated into writing lessons and sometimes explicit grammar teaching happens. Additionally, from Year 2 upwards, each class has at least three 20 minute spelling lessons a week. Spelling is currently of high priority at Bradley Barton, so this is focussed upon wherever possible and the teachers set high expectations for this.

Handwriting is taught frequently across the school. The children are expected to write in a fluent cursive style from Year 2 upwards, unless a child has a specific handwriting difficulty. If you would like to support your child in this area, please see the handwriting link at the bottom of the page. Children earn their pen license when their handwriting reaches a high, consistent standard. 

Impact

In Early Years, children complete a progress write each half term. Children work towards creating purposeful writing and are encouraged to reflect on their previous writing to improve on their learning. 

In KS1 and KS2, teachers measure impact in writing by completing a Hot Write every 3 weeks. This Hot Write is assessed according to the Evidence Gathering Grids which inform the assessment grades. This assessment will then go onto support the planning of the next three week unit. Alongside this, data is collected termly so that teachers can notice and respond to trends and put in place supportive interventions intended to support or challenge the children.