Being an Author (Writing)
Our vision for writing at Wick CE Primary School is for our children to use their love and knowledge of quality texts to help them communicate ideas and thoughts about their world and the wider world through a range of writing experiences. Our children will be immersed in the process of writing and this will allow them to develop the confidence and enthusiasm for writing that will take them on to KS3 and beyond.
We use a systematic approach to teaching writing that is built around the principles of immersion, innovation and the writing process. This is a sequence that loops learning towards an end of unit outcome. The sequence runs over three phases and prioritises the explicit teaching of grammar and punctuation appropriate to the age of the children and the text type.
Teachers work to develop independence through gradual release from a scaffold.
How we evaluate our learning as authors
Teachers assess the children’s writing each and every lesson and every time they mark books – looking for success and areas to develop which informs future planning in order to move the children forward. Teachers identify pupils who need further feedback to support or stretch them.
As part of our Writing DNA, children are given a wide range of opportunities to write independently and apply the skills they have been taught in line with the assessment framework. The teacher will look at a wide selection of writing in the child’s books to inform their overall judgement and set children targets. The writing is also moderated by a range of teachers and compared with other children within and across year groups to ensure consistency.
Children are assessed against the Teacher Assessment Framework (TAFs) which help teachers to evaluate their progress and what the next steps are.
Handwriting
By the time the children leave Wick, at the end of Year 6, all the children in the school should be able to write legibly, fluently and neatly with speed. The expectation is that their handwriting will be joined and that they will have developed their own distinct handwriting style. To achieve this, the children are systematically taught cursive handwriting at least once a week, following the Letterjoin scheme. More details about this and its progression can be found in the documents section below.
Spelling
As well as being taught through the writing teaching sequence and the new vocabulary, spelling is taught through explicit lessons twice a week in Years 2-4 through the Read, Write, Inc. scheme. A new spelling rule is taught every fortnight and children are tested on the rule at the end of the sequence. Further drip feed lessons and tests are given at the end of the term to embed the rule.