Writing

Curriculum Subject Overview

Subject: Writing

Intent:

At Bramley Park Academy, we believe that all pupils should be able to communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing. We want pupils to acquire a rich vocabulary; a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time in primary school. We want them to write clearly, accurately and coherently for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.

Bramley Park Academy believe that all pupils should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, by developing a fluent, cursive, handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school. We believe that all successful writers refine and edit their writing over time, so we want our children to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement in all pieces of writing, editing their work effectively during and after the writing process.

Implementation:

At Bramley Park Academy, we teach English as whole class lessons. As a result, all children have access to the age-related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum. Within lessons, teachers and support staff target their support using minute by minute assessments to enable all children to achieve at an age-related level wherever possible. This may involve a greater level of scaffolding and access to additional support materials such as Writers Toolkits, Word Banks or a greater level of modelling. All classrooms will have an up to date ‘English working wall’ which is current, relevant and interactive. Teachers will use and refer to this in lessons.

Children working at, or towards, greater depth are given opportunities to extend their writing in a variety of ways, including through showing greater control in their writing, a deeper understanding of the impact that their writing has on the reader and by using a higher level of vocabulary and grammar features.

English Lesson Sequence:

Each year group have a yearly overview of the writing genres, both narrative and non-fiction, that they will teach. These have been skilfully planned to ensure accurate coverage of the key genres as well as successfully building on skills from year to year. Generally, writing units at Bramley Park Academy will take between two and four weeks to complete, and the outcome of each unit will be an Extended Write which will be used to assess the pupil’s skills against the agreed success criteria. Where possible, every narrative unit is linked to a carefully chosen text that acts as a stimulus for teaching the identified text, word and sentence level features that children will be expected to include in their extended writing outcome for that unit. In all genres, A WAGOLL – What a good one looks like – is created based on the stimulus text and supports pupils to identify and mimic the identified features in their own writing.

Non-fiction units are also taught through a quality WAGOLL that may be based on a stimulus text or may be related to another curriculum area.

Spelling, punctuation and grammar:

Bramley Park Academy teaches spellings according to the rules and words contained in Appendix 1 of the English national curriculum. Teachers use the Classroom Secrets Spelling Scheme to support their teaching and to provide activities that link to the weekly spellings. Children are given spellings to learn each week and are given a spelling test the following week.

When marking work, teachers identify up to five words that children have spelt incorrectly from within that child’s known ability. In Key Stage Two, teachers write these on a post-it note for the child. Children are then encouraged to identify these incorrect spellings in their own writing and correct them.  From September 2020, Grammar and punctuation knowledge and skills are taught both through English lessons and as a discrete lesson. Teachers will teach required ARE skills through the genres of writing that they are teaching and the intended writing outcome. Teachers sometimes focus on particular grammar and punctuation skills as ‘standalone’ lessons, if they feel that the class need additional lessons to embed and develop their understanding or to consolidate skills.

Assessment/ marking and feedback:

At Bramley Park Academy, feedback and marking should be completed, where possible, within the lesson. All marking and feedback is given in line with our marking and feedback policy.

Summative assessments will be entered into Target tracker each half term and this is closely followed by rigorous pupil progress moderation. Teachers will use their professional judgement to determine whether a child is working within age-related expectations, above or below. They will base their judgements on the quality of the writing that pupils produce across a range of genres and also different curriculum areas.

Intended impact

  • 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 skilfully modelled.
  • Pupils will have a wide, rich and notable vocabulary that they use confidently within their writing
  • Pupils will gain an increased knowledge of how to adapt their writing based on the context and audience
  • Pupils will leave Bramley Park Academy being able to effectively apply spelling rules and patterns they have been taught
  • Parents and carers will have a good understanding of how they can support spelling, grammar and composition and home, and contribute regularly to homework
  • The % of pupils working at ARE within each year group will be in line with national averages.
  • The % of pupils working at Greater Depth within each year group will be closer to national averages
  • The will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils (e.g. disadvantaged vs non-disadvantaged)