Writing Intent:

We aim to teach the skills of writing and a love of writing so that our children:

• develop enjoyment and pleasure in writing
• have opportunities to write for a range of real purposes and audiences
• understand the skills and processes that are essential for writing: thinking aloud, re-reading, editing and presenting their writing to check their meaning is clear
• have opportunities in spelling to practise using both their phonics knowledge and develop independent spelling strategies
• form their letters correctly and confidently, when writing, and use writing with a joined fluent style
• know and use grammar terminology to talk about their writing and how it helps a reader to understand and enjoy what they have written.

Writing Implementation:

We aim to develop the children’s ability to produce well structured, detailed writing in which the meaning is made clear and which engages the interest of the reader.

The children are given frequent opportunities in school to write in different contexts using quality texts as a model and for a variety of purposes and audiences. The text types which are required to be covered by The National Curriculum (2014) are outlined in our long term plans for each year group to ensure that there is a breadth of coverage.

Attention is paid throughout the school to the formal structures of English, grammatical detail, punctuation and spelling. Our approach to teaching writing covers the ‘transcription’ and ‘composition’ requirements of The National Curriculum (2014). At Parklands, we help children develop fluent, clear and legible joined up writing.

Teachers model writing strategies and the use of phonics and spelling strategies in shared writing sessions. To support our teaching of writing, staff may also refer to Pie Corbett’s ‘Talk for Writing’ strategies. Teachers are flexible in their selection of these strategies to suit the needs of the children and text type being taught. Children are given opportunities to write in different situations including shared, guided and independently, therefore supporting the children with developing the skills they need to become proficient writers. The pupils also have opportunities to write at length in extended independent writing sessions allowing them to choose the genre and often the context of their writing.

We recognise the important role that computing has to play in our school in the development of English skills. There are many opportunities for children to improve their writing inspired by drama techniques and film clips. Interactive technology is used on a daily basis to enhance the teaching of English.