Intent

At Rockcliffe, we believe that writing is a key skill for life, both inside and out of education. We aim, wherever possible, to create cross-curricular writing opportunities, as we believe that for children to see themselves as successful writers, they need to be involved in writing for a real purpose and for different audiences. We believe that this not only produces higher quality writing but also allows our learners to apply their skills to a range of different contexts. Our aim is for all learners to achieve their full potential in writing and we are committed to providing the scaffolds and challenge needed in order for our children to achieve this.

Implementation

Writing is an important part of our curriculum and is an integral part of all of our lessons. We plan engaging units of work, linked to the current cross-curricular theme, in order to enthuse, inspire and motivate our children. Units of work are underpinned by well-chosen texts that provide rich language models and structures from which children can learn how writing works and the effect it can have on a reader. Carefully planned teaching activities meet the needs of all learning styles and expose children to age-related expectations for writing within a range of texts.

Writing and reading are closely linked and we ensure that children are reading daily in order to build on their knowledge of different genres of writing and develop their vocabulary. At Rockcliffe, writing is taught in a range of ways:

Oracy is prioritised in our writing curriculum to build vocabulary for learners at all phases and increase understanding of trickier texts.

Modelling Writing: The teacher talks aloud the thought processes as a writer with the children. They model strategies in front of the children, communicating the strategies being used. Teachers may model writing skills such as punctuation, rehearsal, proofreading, editing, word selection, sentence construction and paragraphing.

Shared Writing: This is a collaborative approach in which the pupils contribute their ideas and thoughts for the teacher to write. The teacher models and teaches specific writing skills and there is the opportunity for discussion to choose the most effective or suitable ideas.

Guided Writing: Pupil groups are needs-led and are identified through ongoing assessments. The teacher or other adult works with the group on a carefully selected task appropriate to that group’s needs and targets. This will focus on a particular aspect of the writing process rather than writing a complete piece. Misconceptions, gaps in learning and common errors will be addressed through targeted group work.

Independent Writing: Children are given opportunities to apply their understanding of the text type in their own writing. They are encouraged to plan, draft, write, edit and publish their work, applying the skills they have learnt throughout the unit of work on that particular genre.

'Exciting Writing’: As a means of teaching children to write for a range of purposes and audiences, throughout a variety of forms across narrative, non-fiction and poetry, we have developed our own approach to extended/creative writing. We provide children with a range of engaging hooks and immersive, imaginary contexts to capture their imagination. Supported by high-quality dialogue, effective modelling and the appropriate scaffolds and prompts, we believe that children will be enthused and empowered to become writers. 

Handwriting: Nelson print, pre-cursive and cursive handwriting is modelled across the school and children are encouraged to imitate this. Handwriting is taught and practised regularly in separate books, but is expected to be evident throughout all work produced. Children formally practice handwriting three times a week: sitting at a table comfortably, they learn correct letter formation and how to join letters speedily and legibly.

In Reception: Writing is taught through well-organised activities which are initially teacher-taught/led and further consolidated by child-initiated activities. The learning environment promotes writing through a range of resources, which enable our pupils to practice writing for different purposes and audiences. A Talk 4 Writing approach incorporates discussion, questioning and learning texts with actions, which all increase understanding and prepare children with the tools they need in order to be successful in their writing.

Impact

• The impact of the curriculum will be that all pupils at Rockcliffe not only achieve at least the age-related expectation at the end of each year, but that by the time they leave us for middle school, they are also able to:
• Write with confidence, clarity and imagination
• Understand and apply their knowledge of phonics, grammar and spelling accurately
• Understand how to write for a range of purposes and audiences, in a range of genres (including fiction, non-fiction and poetry), using the appropriate style, structure and features
• Plan, draft, revise and edit their own work, and learn how to self and peer-assess against the success criteria
• Develop a technical vocabulary through which to understand and discuss their writing
• Develop their imagination, creativity, expressive language and critical awareness

Assessment

 Assessment of writing takes place in the following ways:

• The Early Years Baseline Assessment is used to assess children’s early progress towards Early Learning Goals.
• Early Years children will be assessed using the EYFS Profile against the Writing ELG statements. 
• In Key Stages 1 and 2, termly summative Teacher Assessments: North Tyneside Assessment Grids (NTAGs) are used to assess children’s progress against National Curriculum objectives for writing (by year group).

 SEND: Children who are identified as not achieving age-related outcomes and/or those on the SEN register may be assessed against the outcomes for the year group below. Interventions and support may be put in place to accelerate writing skills in this case. The nature of the intervention will be decided by the teacher and the SENCO. Class support may include small group work with an adult during lessons to model key skills, scaffolds created by the teacher to assist with completion of work and word banks/sentence openers provided to assist the child when writing.