"There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you."

-Beatrix Potter

Empowering Young Writers at Newton Ferrers School

Intention  

It is our intent at Newton Ferrers Primary School to provide pupils with a high-quality education in English that will teach all pupils to speak, read and write fluently. It is our intention when teaching the English curriculum that our pupils acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding to become lifelong learners and linguists. Our aim is to ensure that every child becomes a reader, a writer and confident speaker by the time they leave Newton Ferrers Primary School.  

At Newton Ferrers, we believe that all pupils should be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing. We want pupils to acquire a wide 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, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. We believe that all pupils should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, in part by developing a good, joined, handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school. We believe that all good writers refine and edit their writing over time, so we want 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. We do not put ceilings on what pupils can achieve in writing and we do not hold preconceptions about any pupils’ ability to make progress. We understand the importance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both grammar, spelling and composition skills, and so we want to encourage a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school with parent workshops. 

Implementation 

We teach English as whole class lessons, so that all children have access to the age-related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum. At Newton Ferrers Primary, we follow a Talk for Writing approach (imitate – innovate – invent) or a Take One Book approach (book-led planning with cross-genre outcomes).   

Each year group have a yearly overview of the writing genres, both narrative and non-fiction, that they will teach. These have been planned to ensure correct coverage of the key genres as well as build on skills from year to year. Units will take between two and four weeks to complete, and each term there will be a ‘Hot Task’ which will be used to assess the pupil’s skills against the agreed success criteria. 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. 

Writing through Phonics  

Our Read, Write, Inc approach to phonics includes a huge emphasis on writing from Foundation onwards. There is a huge focus on letter formation in Foundation and then, as the programme progresses, the focus then changes to sentence level. The comprehensive phonics programme teaches reading, writing and spelling.  

When using 'Read Write Inc' to write the children will:  

- Learn to write the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds (graphemes)  

- Learn to write words by sounding them out and then writing the corresponding graphemes 

 - Learn to write simple and then increasingly complex sentences. 

Spelling 

Spellings are taught explicitly according to the rules and words contained in Appendix 1 of the English National Curriculum. We use the RWI synthetic spelling programme to support children from years 2-6 building on the strong foundation of their phonics learning.  Teachers use many teaching tools to support their teaching and to provide engaging activities that link to the weekly spellings. Children are given weekly spellings to learn at home. 

Grammar and Punctuation  

Grammar and punctuation knowledge and skills are taught through English lessons as much as possible. Teachers plan to teach the required skills through the genres of writing that they are teaching, linking it to the genre to make it more connected with the intended writing outcome. Teachers sometimes focus on particular grammar and punctuation skills as stand alone lessons, if they feel that the class need additional lessons to embed and develop their understanding or to consolidate skills. 

Handwriting  

Handwriting is taught explicitly in Foundation and KS1 and children with a huge emphasis on letter formation. When children are ready, they are encouraged to use cursive handwriting from Year 2 upwards. Huge praise is given for joining fluently and taking pride in the presentation of their writing and awards are given out such as the ‘Presentation Award’ and ‘Pen Licences’ from Year 4 onwards.  We encourage pupils to use a pencil or pen that works for them and that supports them to present their work neatly. Writing slopes and pencil grips alongside left handed pencils and pens are used to support high outcomes for all. 

Impact  

We measure the effectiveness and impact of our English Writing, Grammar and Spelling curriculum in a variety of different ways. We use National and summative testing to assess pupils' outcomes for Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling as part of the Statutory Assessment Tests (SATs) and through termly summative assessments across school which enables pupils' progress and attainment in the subject matter to be evaluated. Additionally, pupils complete writing assessments on a half termly basis, where written work is assessed to inform teachers of pupils' next steps and successes. The impact of the curriculum can be seen through pupils' national assessment results. Our children enjoy writing across a range of genres and love to see their progress over time with their ‘Hot Tasks’. 

At Newton Ferrers, pupils of all abilities are able to succeed with their writing because work is appropriately scaffolded. Children are increasingly able to apply new vocabulary that they have learnt and apply new writing skills independently. Editing is incorporated into each unit at Newton Ferrers and children develop these key skills from the KS1. By the time they leave primary school, they have a good knowledge of how to adapt their writing based on the context and audience and have a wide vocabulary that they use in their writing. They are able to effectively apply the spelling rules and patterns taught. 

Adaptive Practice - guided assistance.

Adaptive practice is achieved by the amount of support pupils need in order to learn something new. The guidance in Literacy and Language ensures that children who need least support receive the necessary challenge and that others receive the necessary assistance to understand the texts they read and to write confidently.

Teachers support and challenge the children by: 

• developing comprehension using the three layers of text approach for reading, allowing access to engaging and challenging texts for all children.
• modelling your thought processes in planning for writing and editing using 'Think out loud'.
• preparing children for writing using oral rehearsal.
• providing differentiated writing frames where necessary. 
• asking and encouraging children to ask questions, with an emphasis on allowing thinking and talking time. 
• using partner and small group work developed to a high level to provide peer support and challenge.