Writing

English at St Matthew’s

Friendship, Discovery, Prayer

 Writing Intent

At St Matthews’ we value the importance of high quality and engaging texts to inspire children’s writing. We believe that every child sees themselves as an author.  The teaching of English allows all pupils to access other areas of the curriculum and these skills are embedded in cross-curricular learning. Our three main aims in writing are:

• To provide a language-rich environment that promotes a culture of writing
• Develop pupils’ understanding and use of spoken language and apply this in their writing
• Use high quality texts to provide a purpose and context to writing.

“Good literacy floats on a sea of talk” (James Britton). At St Matthew’s we use a book led curriculum to provide a language-rich environment and  develop pupils’ understanding and use of spoken language.

Writing Implementation

Writing is evident in every aspect of our curriculum. Our English lessons focus on ensuring that pupils are able to explore and deconstruct a genre as well as model grammar skills while building to a piece of writing  by working through a sequence of planning phases:

• Phase 1: Introduce the genre
• Phase 2: Examine the technique and vocabulary
• Phase 3: Modelled and shared writing/planning
• Phase 4: Write the piece with a set of success criteria
• Phase 5: Edit and publish

These planning phases allow children to examine each writing genre in depth and build upon their literacy skills and knowledge.

Our school ensures that children are aware of their strengths and areas for development in writing so that learners can take ownership of their progress. Children from years 1- 6 are taught to proofread their work and develop their critical thinking skills by self editing and improving their writing. Teachers leave next steps in books when marking to ensure that children know exactly what they need to do next to continue to make progress.  Childrens’ edits and reflections are shown through the use of pink and purple pen.

Grammar and  Punctuation

 Grammar, punctuation and vocabulary skills are taught explicitly during writing lessons and the children identify how authors have used them effectively during their reading lessons.

Vocabulary

At St Matthew’s our aims are to provide a language-rich environment and to develop pupils’ understanding and use of spoken language. Therefore, the teaching of vocabulary and modelling of talk  is incredibly important with opportunities for the development of oracy skills provided throughout the day. Pupils are given a language rich curriculum through the use of Talk for Writing  story maps, role play, shared writing and are encouraged and shown how to effectively use interesting and adventurous language.

 It is of the utmost importance that our children acquire a wide vocabulary and have a strong command of the written word.

Writing Impact

Teachers use assessment as an integral part of the teaching and learning process and link it clearly to the children’s next steps .Tracking sheets are used to inform planning and assess children’s writing skills  and writing assessment is ongoing throughout every lesson.  The impact on our children is that they have the knowledge and skills to be able to write successfully for a purpose and audience. With the implementation of the writing phases being taught in both key stages, children become confident writers and have the ability to plan, draft and edit their own work. Pupils are given detailed feedback and next steps to respond to in order to personalise learning and provide the children with opportunities to edit and improve their own work. School leaders closely monitor all pupil’s books and hold individual termly meetings with all teachers to assess every individual child’s learning needs and progress.

Our KS1 and KS2 published writing data show that children are engaging, thoughtful and cohesive writers, with a high percentage working at or above the national standard. Our latest set of results showed:

*Please note: 2019 was the last set of published data

Please click here to see the Writing progression map