Intent:

At Havelock Schools School we know that writing underpins all curriculum areas and is an essential skill for children. When children enter our school, we encourage a love of writing and provide as many opportunities for children to write as possible. The development of writing is at the heart of our curriculum and we strive to give children ambitious and varied writing opportunities to enhance their writing skills as they move through our school.

We ensure that our English units allow for children to experience and then develop their writing in a wide range of genres. We plan for meaningful writing tasks across all curriculum areas. We expect high standards of writing in all subjects.

We refer to the Havelock Schools Writing Progression documents to ensure that children revisit and build upon skills previously taught. Our aim is to enable our children to be confident, ambitious and creative writers by the time that they leave our school.

Implementation:

Havelock Schools use a reading into writing strategy to promote a love of literature. It focuses on using high quality children’s texts and provides a creative teaching approach to engage children in the literacy curriculum. To ensure we have an agreed whole-school approach to the teaching of writing, units are planned in phases to offer opportunities to respond to texts and stimulus, capture ideas and consolidate newly taught skills, applying them to a final independent piece of extended writing. This provides a coherent model for linking and combining English knowledge and text-types into effective teaching and learning opportunities. This leads to meaningful and high-quality written outcomes which are determined prior to planning the three phases to ensure that each phase informs and leads into the next and contributes to the final piece.

We ensure the teaching of writing is effectively planned, responsive to learners’ needs and incorporate the key elements needed to be a successful writer. We develop a range of skills which can be applied across a range of subjects and contexts for real audiences and purposes.

'Writer-talk' is encouraged throughout all phases. This is the articulation of thinking and it also encapsulates the creative processes involved in all stages of the act of writing. It is talk that helps children to think and behave like a writer (and indeed consider themselves to be one). 'Writer-talk' involves externalising these thoughts and making them explicit, through 'reading as a writer' and 'writing as a reader'. As part of the planning process, the teachers will identify and display specific vocabulary for the text being taught.

Phase 1:

During the first phase of the teaching sequence a range of reading comprehension strategies such as:

summarising, imagining, predicting and making connections are taught explicitly. Children are immersed in the text type and are encouraged to ‘read as a reader’. Further models may be shared with the children, so they broaden their frame of reference through investigating how other writers tackle the type of writing they are focussing on. Reading tasks like these may also appear within the other phases.

Phase 2:

The explicit stages of the writing process are modelled by the teacher. Phase 2 encourages children to 'read as a writer' which involves identifying the underlying patterns of both the overall organisation, as well as how the writer creates different effects. It focuses on the purpose and audience of a piece of writing; understanding what response the writer wishes to elicit in the reader and how they achieve this. It often correctly considers choices made at word and sentence level. During this phase, teaching also focuses on the areas for development identified from children's prior learning. The text is broken down into key sections so that the structure becomes obvious and can be used as a basic planner. Writing check-lists or tool-kits may be co-constructed to enable the children to identify the skills they need. During this stage, children continue to be immersed in language and encouraged to notice language patterns that may widen their vocabulary choices. A range of drama strategies may precede writing in order to engage and inspire the children and help develop skills such as visualisation and empathy.

Phase 3:

In this phase children are given the opportunity to apply the writing skills they have developed in Phase 2 as they build up to the writing outcome of the unit. This phase encourages children to ‘write as a reader’.

'Writing as a reader' involves children applying the understanding gained in Phase 2 when making choices about planning, creating and improving their own writing; understanding what response, as a writer, they wish to elicit in the reader and how they can achieve this. This is particularly important for greater depth writers. Writing is explicitly modelled by the teacher using a range of approaches as follows:

Shared Writing

Teachers model the planning, writing and editing process: demonstrating reflective writing by making mistakes and plunging deeper for better words; re-reading and editing constantly; demonstrating how to compose sentences with subordination for time and reason. This takes place during whole class teaching, where ideas are shared and discussed. The sessions are delivered with pace and are interactive.

These ideas are recorded and refined by the teacher, modelling the skills needed to be a writer. The shared writing session primarily focuses on how to achieve the success criteria for a given objective within the writing to be completed. It also provides a vehicle for the teaching of grammar. Children then have the opportunity to practise and extend their own writing independently, or in a guided group.

We use the following three strategies for shared writing:

Teacher demonstration:

• Teachers demonstrate how to write a text – how to use a particular feature or compose a text type – maintaining a clear focus on the objective(s).
• They think the process through aloud, rehearsing the sentence before writing, making changes to its construction or word choice and explaining why one form or word is preferable to another.
• The teachers write the sentence, reread it and change it again if necessary.
• Children may be asked to contribute their opinions on choice of words or construction of sentences.
• Every so often shared writing is used to orchestrate a number of different objectives, calling upon all that has been learned so far.
• The length of time spent on demonstration will depend on the type of writing, the objective and the attention span of the children.

Teacher scribe:

• Children make contributions based on initial modelling.
• Fuller class participation takes place with use of planning pages to note down words, clauses, sentences.
• Contributions and their merits are discussed and refined.

Supported composition:

• Teachers use the children’s ideas when creating the text.
• They discuss and list success criteria and refer to vocabulary generated. This may be displayed on working walls, word banks, prior work or the vocabulary display specific to that text.
• Children work in pairs or individually to write a limited amount of text, focused on the teaching point.
• Examples are shared with the class, misconceptions identified and corrected.
• Opportunities are provided for practise until most children have mastered the objective and can apply it when they write.
• Longer sessions may be used to create whole texts or plans.

Guided Writing:

In guided writing both the class teacher and TA conduct a learning objective-focussed guided group. In this session, a common learning need is targeted with a small group of children. Ideas are shared and discussed and then recorded by the teacher, modelling the skills needed to write successfully. This modelling process is repeated as necessary. Children then evidence their progress independently, using the guidance to inform their own writing. Children are given time to reflect and respond to marking.

Independent Writing:

In independent writing sessions the children create their own piece of writing, sharing their writing with a partner and exploring suggestions for improvements. As the children write, they continue to orally rehearse, making changes where necessary. During this time, children are expected to edit their work carefully, considering their teacher’s or peer feedback and the effect their word choice has on the reader. Finally, the children write the text type independently and apply what they have learnt across the curriculum. Children are encouraged to edit for publishing. The unit ends with a ‘independent write’ that is assessed by the teacher.

Spelling:

In addition to the teaching of spelling within the teaching sequence and the focus on the development of highquality synthetic phonics, a whole-school approach to the teaching of spelling has been developed. Spelling is taught according to the rules and words contained in Appendix 1 of the English National Curriculum.

Grammar and Punctuation:

Grammar and punctuation knowledge are taught primarily through English lessons with reference to the Havelock Schools Writing Progression Document. Teachers plan to teach the required knowledge 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 knowledge as stand-alone lessons, particularly when focussing on identification of specific elements.

Evidence in Writing books demonstrates that children are developing grammar and punctuation knowledge on an ongoing basis. The expectations for extended writing will vary across year groups but will always involve children being expected to apply the knowledge that was modelled to them, and thereby meet the agreed success criteria.

Vocabulary Development:

The teaching of vocabulary is fundamental to the teaching of reading and writing and takes place throughout the entire teaching sequence. Throughout the teaching sequence texts are chosen to ensure all children encounter a challenging level of vocabulary. New words that the children encounter are explored and children are encouraged to share any new vocabulary with their peers and discuss their meaning. Vocabulary from the text is carefully planned, displayed and is taught both explicitly (pre-taught) and implicitly (at the point of reading). The words selected to be explicitly taught include tier 2 words (words which have more than one meaning depending of the context of the text) and tier 3 words (more ‘academic’ words with specific definitions e.g. scientific/technical words.) All classrooms are vocabulary rich and reflect/exemplify the words and phrases which have been taught and explored over a sequence of learning/within a topic area. The pupils are encouraged to use and apply this ambitious vocabulary in their own writing.

Feedback:

Where possible, feedback is completed within the lesson, unless children have completed an independent writing piece when a more in-depth mark will be completed. All feedback is given in line with our marking and feedback policy. Children should be clear on what they can do well and what they need to improve within their writing.

Assessment:

We use a range of strategies to assess the children’s writing and employ effective formative and summative assessment procedures throughout the writing process. The unit ends with an assessed ‘independent write’.

Across both the school and Pathfinders Trust, Teachers and leaders work together to jointly standardise and moderate the children’s writing within each year group. Summative data is submitted to the senior leaders at set points throughout the year. Exemplification materials are being developed by the Pathfinders Trust for all year groups for making judgements and to inform planning. Teachers will use their professional judgement to determine whether a child is working within age-related expectations, above or below. They base their judgements on the quality of the independent write that children produce at the end of each unit and determine to what extent children have met the agreed success criteria for that genre of writing. Ongoing assessments are recorded on Insight to inform subsequent teaching and summative data.

Leadership of Writing

Leaders monitor the provision of writing through learning walks in English, book looks and pupil voice. They regularly monitor and evaluate the impact of this provision through the analysis of (i) end of year cohort data and (ii) individual pupil progress throughout the year (on going assessments).

Impact

We are ambitious for all our children and strive to ensure that we provide all children with the skills needed for them to become successful writers, no matter what their starting point, background or additional needs. We expect our children to become writers who:

• Enjoy writing and view themselves as effective, competent writers;
• Have a good understanding of the purpose of writing and can write effectively for a range of purposes and audiences.
• Have a wide vocabulary that they use within their writing.
• Leave primary school being able to effectively apply spelling rules and patterns they have been taught.

We aim to meet the expectations of the Early Learning Goals and the National Curriculum and when possible, exceed these and ensure that children make good progress in Writing during their time at Havelock Schools

Therefore, we aim to achieve:

• Outcomes at the end of KS1 in writing that are at least in line with or above national averages for attainment at both standards.
• Outcomes at the end of KS2 in writing that are at least in line with national or above averages for attainment at both standards and progress.
• The % of pupils working at Age Related Expectations in writing within each year group will be at least in line with national averages.
• The % of pupils working at Greater Depth in writing within each year group will be at least in line with national averages