Writing
Intent
At Sandilands, writing is at the heart of the curriculum. By the end of Year 6, we intend our children to be creative, independent writers, who write confidently for a range of purposes and audiences. We want to inspire children to be confident in the art of speaking and listening and to use discussion to communicate and further their learning. We prioritise vocabulary within the whole curriculum, to enable children to develop their skills in spoken language, reading and writing.
Implementation
Vocabulary is a key area for learning at Sandilands. We use a variety of oracy techniques, including drama activities and debate to develop children’s spoken language, which has a powerful impact on the decisions made when writing independently to suit the audience, genre and purpose.
We follow the Little Wandle programme for phonics. This is taught in EYFS and KS1 in ability groups and through intervention in KS2 to accelerate progress. In KS2, spelling rules are taught explicitly through Grammarsaurus spelling lessons. This programme teaches spelling conventions, patterns and rules including statutory words and common exceptions. Within the sessions, a range of strategies for learning spellings are introduced and practised. This enables pupils to choose the strategies they find most effective for learning different words.There is also an expectation that children spend time at home learning their weekly spelling list. Words are tested weekly and spelling successes are rewarded through spelling badges and certificates. Sandilands hold a Spelling Bee once a year where spelling is celebrated with schools in our cluster.
In order to develop creative, confident writers we use a range of high quality texts including: fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Long term overviews are used to ensure children have exposure to a range of writing genres. Literacy Company training as well as Grammarsaurus is adapted to suit the needs of our pupils to ensure writing sequences are meaningful and there is a strong emphasis on audience and purpose. Children are given opportunities to practise and apply their writing skills across the curriculum with high expectations. Teachers ensure that pupils embed key writing concepts in their long-term memory through revisiting genres. This enables pupils to work towards clearly defined end points which build upon what has been taught before.
In the Autumn term, all year groups begin with teaching the Place Value for Grammar (PVPG) unit before their first assessed piece of writing (non-chronological report). Hereafter, SPaG is explicitly taught daily as a starter before the focus of the writing lesson. Year group overviews map out genres and assessment pieces of writing over the year to ensure coverage of a range of genres and purposes. In addition, a specific focus is given to verb tenses through daily practice of irregular verbs. Each year group has a focus of ten words to master before moving through progressively.
We have high expectations for handwriting and presentation. Handwriting skills are taught through the Martin Harvey programme (x4 weekly) with a focus of transference of handwriting in Writing books at least once weekly. This focuses on developing accurately formed, joined letters that are of the correct size. Handwriting and presentation is celebrated through weekly certificates.
Impact
By the time children leave Sandilands Community Primary School we aim for all children to be creative, independent and resilient writers, who can write for a range of purposes, genres and audiences. Children will have developed a love of writing and be able to understand and use a broad range of vocabulary.
Year groups overviews are used to assess the writing skills children have acquired across all curriculum areas. We use specific success criteria linked to the National Curriculum when moderating in school and as a cluster to inform future planning and ensure consistency and progression across the school in preparation for KS3.
Parents and carers will have a good understanding of how they can support; spelling, grammar and composition at home as well as supporting children to complete their homework.