Writing            

 Aims

At Victoria Road, we believe everyone is a writer. We aim to develop a love of writing, to provide pupils with a high-quality education in English and expose them to a range of writing techniques and writing genres for specific audiences. 

We teach pupils to speak, read and write fluently, so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others effectively and develop their confidence and stamina for writing. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing across the curriculum. We place a strong emphasis on presentation and handwriting. 

We strongly believe the best writers are always readers. Indeed, it would be impossible to write a text type without being familiar with the language rhythms, structure and patterns. So reading influences writing – undeniably, the richness, depth and breadth of reading shapes and determines the writer that we become. If a child’s reading is limited then their writing will inevitably be thin. Children who write proficiently are always readers. Furthermore, it is impossible to write a sentence pattern without being able to say it – and you cannot say it, without hearing it. Language is primarily learned through our oracy approach. Talk can then be enhanced by constant exposure to quality texts and will be shaped by writing. 

The aims of our Writing offer is to deliver a curriculum that is accessible to all pupils, so they know more, remember more and understand more and can apply this independently in their writing. 

Our Writing curriculum aims to: 

• Foster a sense of writing for pleasure in all pupils. 
• Develop writing stamina across the wider curriculum. 
• Enable our children to use writing as a way of expressing themselves.
• Set high expectations in presentation so children have pride in their work
• Do everything we can to ensure our pupils leave primary school with basic writing skills to enable them to be successful in the next phase of their school journey and beyond. 

Implementation

For writing, we have implemented a whole school, cumulative and systematic process for teaching writing and other literacy skills in the form of the scheme of work Pathways to Write. Pathways to Write is a proven methodology built around units of work which develop vocabulary, reading and writing skills through the mastery approach. The units of work, for use with pupils from EYFS to Year 6, provide detailed lesson plans and resources, linked to high-quality texts to ensure engaging and purposeful English lessons. Effective teaching strategies to challenge greater depth writers are included within each unit of work.  

Emphasis on writing is evident from Early Year onwards. In Early Years, children will learn how to: make marks; give meaning to these marks (before they make letters); work out how writing works; how to hold their pencil; what pressure to put on the paper and how to control the marks they make. In Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, the movement from imitation to innovation to independent application is adapted to suit the needs of pupils at every stage. This approach enables children to write independently for a variety of purposes, form and audiences for English and within the different curriculum subjects. This is measured through a range of strategies including opportunities throughout the year for the pupils to show and talk about what they have learned in their writing journey.

In addition to this, Victoria Road has underpinned their literary diet by establishing core texts of quality fiction, poetry and non-fiction that all children can experience and draw upon. Imaginative units of work have been developed to create a whole-school plan that is well resourced and documented; enabling teachers to focus on adapting their teaching for children’s learning. 

Writing is part of the English National Curriculum and aims to ensure that all pupils in KS1 and KS2: 

• Read easily, fluently and with good understanding. 
• Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. 
• Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for Reading, writing and spoken language.
• Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage. 
• Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. 
• Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas. 
• Are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate. 
• Promote oracy throughout the school by encouraging the pupils to speak with confidence, clarity and eloquence across a range of topics, adapt their use of language for a range of different purposes and audiences and celebrate the diversity of our language.
• Give pupils a voice to share their ideas with the world; to express, explore and communicate emotions and the skills to write inside and outside school – anywhere and at any time.

Impact

We promote writing for pleasure, linking to the current world and being able to access the world via different forms of modern media. Our Writing Curriculum enables pupils to: 

• Become competent writers by the time they leave Victoria Road. In order to track pupil progress, there is a clear assessment framework at the end of each unit of writing. Summative assessment is done 3 times a year using our 21 steps data assessment. Pupils who are not on track to reach age-related expectations, are swiftly identified and extra intervention is put into place to support them with achieving this goal.  
•  By the end of Early Years, children working at an expected level will be able to write recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed. They will be able to spell words by identifying sounds in them and representing the sounds with a letter or letters. They will also be able to write simple sentences that can be read by others. Writing resources are available for the children to use in every area of the Early Years - including outside. 
• Be able to express what they have learnt across the curriculum and understand different writing genres and writing for a range of audiences.
• Use their writing knowledge and skills in all curriculum areas, to enable them to know more, remember more and understand more. 
• Make at least good progress in Writing from their last point of statutory assessment and from their starting point in EYFS. 
• Access the next phase of their Writing education and beyond.