Benwick Primary School

Writing

Intent

The study of Literacy develops children’s abilities to listen, speak, read and write for a wide range of purposes, so 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 readers of stories, poetry and drama, as well as non-fiction and media texts. Children gain an understanding of how language works by looking at its patterns, structures and origins. Children use their knowledge, skills and understanding in speaking and writing across a range of different situations.

At Benwick Primary School, our handwriting curriculum aims to equip all pupils with the ability to write fluently and legibly, using a cursive style (taught through LetterJoin). Writing is a necessary life skill for all of our pupils and we believe that neat, well-presented handwriting and presentation can raise self-esteem and enable children to feel positive and proud of their work.

Our aims are:

To enable children to speak clearly and audibly in ways which take account of their listeners;
To encourage children to listen with concentration in order to be able to identify the main points of what they have heard;
To enable children to adapt their speech to a wide range of circumstances and demands;
To develop children’s abilities to reflect on their own and others’ contributions and the language used;
To enable children to evaluate their own and others’ contributions through a range of drama activities;
To help children to enjoy communicating;
To help children to enjoy reading;
To develop confident, independent readers through an appropriate focus on word, sentence and text-level knowledge;
To encourage children to become enthusiastic and reflective readers through contact with challenging and lengthy texts;
To help children enjoy writing and recognise its value;
To enable children to write with accuracy and meaning in narrative and non-fiction;
To increase the children’s ability to use planning, drafting and editing to improve their work.

Implementation

In order to help us to develop confident, enthusiastic writers who can express themselves in a variety of different styles and across a variety of contexts, our teaching of writing is often cross circular and linked to our class topics. This provides our children with regular opportunities to write for a range of purposes and audiences.

Our writing lessons are planned around the three phase model (Talk for Writing): imitate, innovate and invent. We teach children to imitate and innovate writing before becoming independent writers with their own writing style.

Handwriting

Handwriting lessons are progressive and well-sequenced throughout the school using the LetterJoin Scheme; teachers also use formative assessment to address class misconceptions where necessary. We recognise that some children will need to build upon their fine motor skills in order to achieve, and where children have mastered a cursive style, challenge must be in place to allow these children to develop further, such as acquiring the skill of writing at speed and the ability to dictate.

Spellings

From Year 2, classes follow the No Nonsense Spelling Scheme and spelling is taught explicitly. Through exploring spelling patterns and rules, etymology and word families, we aim to create confident and proficient spellers who build upon their phonic knowledge gained from Read Write Inc in EYFS and Year One/Two.

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 appropriately scaffolded
Pupils will have a wide vocabulary that they use within their writing
Pupils will have a good knowledge of how to adapt their writing based on the context and audience
Pupils will leave primary school 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 at least in line with national averages.
The % of pupils working at Greater Depth within each year group will be at least in line with national averages

Reading

Reading - things to do at home

Reading Challenges

Robins Class

Doves Class

Owls Class

Swans Class

Writing