St John Fisher Catholic Primary School

Writing: Curriculum Statement

Intent:

At St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, the Gospel Values of Faith, Love, Hope, Trust, Forgiveness, Courage, Justice and Service are at the centre of all learning. We believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of writing and give the children opportunities to develop articulacy through discussion. We believe that our curriculum should provide all children with rich experiences enable them to be: spiritually enlightened, mentally and emotionally happy, culturally literate individuals with social competence, and masters of core skills. We that recognise that all children have a right to an education in accordance with Article 28 of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

We also recognise that writing is a key life skill which enables a child to maximise their learning potential. We aim to foster a love for writing and enable all pupils to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing. Children are provided with opportunities to learn, embed, remember and recall new knowledge that will help them become effective writers, throughout their years at St John Fisher.

We believe that a secure knowledge-base in English, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum, is crucial to a high-quality education and will provide children with the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society.

We want pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn. We want them to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. We believe that all pupils should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, in part by developing a good, joined, handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school. We believe that all good writers refine and edit their writing over time, so we want children to develop independence, self-managing skills and a growth mindset in being able to identify their own areas for improvement in all pieces of writing, editing their work effectively during and after the writing process.

Implementation:

We teach writing as whole class lessons, so that all children have access to the age-related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum. We use the ‘Talk for Writing’ process to teach writing which involves planning, imitation, innovation, independent application and a final assessment. Pupils write a ‘cold task’ which informs planning, learn a model text during the Imitation stage, write their own version of the model text during Innovation and then apply their learning to an independent ‘hot task’ which is used to assess learning. We use various ‘Talk for Writing’ strategies throughout the school, which involve the use of model texts, text maps, boxing up and writing toolkits. During the ‘Talk for Writing’ process, collaborative learning and risk-taking are also encouraged. The writing process is modelled through carefully selected units of work and engaging cross-curricular topics.

Spellings: Spellings are taught according to the rules and words contained in Appendix 1 of the English National Curriculum. Teachers use the Spell Zoo scheme to support their teaching and to provide activities that link to the weekly spellings. Children are given spellings to learn each week and are given a spelling test the following week.

Grammar and Punctuation: Grammar and punctuation knowledge and skills are taught through work linked to the class text as much as possible. Teachers plan to teach the required skills through the genres of writing that they are teaching, linking it to the genre to make it more connected with the intended writing outcome.

Presentation: Handwriting is not only taught discretely; it is an integral part to any lesson and is reinforced daily in all subjects. Children are expected to use joined, legible handwriting and work towards achieving their pen licence, where they can then write in blue pen.

Impact:

All children will enjoy writing across a range of genres, make links and apply their skills in cross-curricular topics. Children of all abilities will be able to succeed in all English lessons because work will be appropriately scaffolded. They will have developed a wide vocabulary that they are able to use within their writing and will have a good knowledge of how to adapt their writing based on the context and audience. Children will leave school being able to effectively apply the spelling rules and patterns they have been taught.

Our inspiration is that as children move on through the year groups at St. John Fisher and eventually on to secondary education, that their love of writing will travel with them as they continue to grow and learn together with Christ.

The Leader for Writing is Sorina Purice.