Vision Statement for Writing

Curriculum Intent

At Hugo Meynell, we believe that writing enables children to communicate their knowledge, ideas, opinions and emotions.  We want children to acquire a rich and varied vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling rules and patterns that they learn throughout their time in primary school.   

We want our children to develop fluency and depth of understanding of a range of genres, writing with confidence and purpose.  They will be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their work and to transfer writing skills across all subject areas.  We want our children to develop a positive attitude to writing, demonstrating resilience through drafting and editing to improve their work.

Implementation

The core of our writing comes from the National Curriculum and we have chosen to use the Pathways to Write Scheme as a main framework to ensure a consistent progression across the school from Reception to Y6.  Developing writing skills is encouraged early in our Nursery and Reception classes where children are given opportunities to mark make and write for a purpose. A clear structured progression in word, grammar, punctuation and writing genres is set out in the progression grid for writing and broken down from the long term to medium term and daily lesson plans. 

Our learning model starts with recapping on prior skills (Gateway Keys) and we include an opportunity to assess these skills early on in each unit.   Children are provided with a hook into the context of learning and engaging texts are used as a stimulus and model for writing.  Within each unit vocabulary development is encouraged by exploring both the NC Common Exception words and more technical and subject specific vocabulary. Each unit has an independent Writing Outcome and a Greater Depth outcome.  Children are given the opportunity to plan, write, edit and redraft their work. Over the course of the year the Mastery Keys (NC skills) are taught, revisited and built upon across each year group by practising and applying them in new contexts.

We continuously review the effectiveness of the scheme and tailor it to the needs of our children.  We make sure that gaps in skills are actioned appropriately so that learning can move on. We use regular grammar blast to ensure constant reviewing and consolidation of grammar taught.  We also use an independent Free Write activity regularly to build up stamina for writing and to use as a tool to assess the skills taught.

We have developed our own Handwriting Policy that sets out a progression of the basic formation of letters leading to taught joins from Year 2.  Handwriting is taught, modelled and practised regularly across school and children are encouraged to produce a high standard of handwriting throughout all of their work.

To teach spelling we use the Pathways to Spell Scheme which ensures progression and consistency of teaching across the school.   Learning is sequenced in five stages each week that include; a review of a previously taught spelling objective, an investigation and explanation of new words/spelling patterns, the opportunity to practise, apply and reflect. Children are given opportunities to practise a range of strategies for learning spellings and they have spelling journals, from Year 2, which are used to support the learning of spellings and keep personal spelling logs.

Impact

Children will experience a range of quality and engaging texts that inspire and motivate both boys and girls to write. They will be exposed to rich vocabulary through different genres that will widen their imagination and stimulate them, allowing them to understand that writing has a real purpose and that word choice and style can bring about change.

We encourage children to be resilient, resourceful learners who strive to succeed and take responsibility for their own learning; equipped with the skills they require to carefully select appropriate resources to support their learning.