Bourne Primary School

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 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. We do not put ceilings on what pupils can achieve in writing and we do not hold pre-conceptions about any pupils’ ability to make progress.

Implementation

We use the ‘The Teach Through a Text’ pedagogy to underpin all our teaching sequences and each aspect is reinforced within the other components.  Links are made through the themes running through the text, dramatic conventions provide resonance and create a hook with the book.  Children are exposed to a range of different writing genres, which have been specifically tailored for their year group. Through the cross-curricular teaching sequences, children are immersed in high quality texts so that they are continuously developing their language and the skills needed to produce their own high-quality pieces of writing. Grammar and punctuation knowledge and skills are taught through English lessons 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. Teachers sometimes focus on particular grammar and punctuation skills as stand-alone lessons, if they feel that the class need additional lessons to embed and develop their understanding or to consolidate skills.

Throughout each Key Stage, every opportunity is taken to apply progressive English skills in all areas of the curriculum, build on pupils’ previous knowledge and develop these further. Emphasis is paid on children becoming proficient at editing and improving their own work and that of their peers. This is developed throughout the school from a young age. Children use purple polishing pens to edit and improve their work.  We believe this will motivate and enthuse our children and therefore allow them to become confident and skilled writers and most importantly enjoy the writing process.

Classroom organisation:  We teach English as whole class lessons, so that all children have access to the age-related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum. Within lessons, teachers and teaching assistants target support for slower graspers to enable them to achieve at an age-related level wherever possible. This may involve a greater level of scaffolding and access to additional support materials such as Writers Toolkits, Word Banks or a greater level of modelling. Rapid graspers are given opportunities to extend their writing in a variety of ways, including through showing greater control in their writing, a deeper understanding of the impact that their writing has on the reader and by using a higher level of vocabulary and grammar features.

Spellings: Spellings are taught according to the rules and words contained in Appendix 1 of the English National Curriculum. No-nonsense spelling scheme is used from Years 3 to 6 which focuses on: – the teaching of spelling: knowledge and conventions, patterns and rules; – the learning of spellings: statutory words, common exception words and personal spellings. EYFS to Year 2 focus on phonics using the Department of Education approved document ‘Letters and Sounds’.

When marking work, teachers can identify up to five words that children have spelt incorrectly from within that child’s known ability for the children to edit in their work. Children are then encouraged to identify these incorrect spellings in their own writing and correct them.

Marking and Feedback: Feedback and marking should be completed, where possible, within the lesson. All marking and feedback is given in line with our marking and feedback policy.

Summative Assessment: Summative assessments will be entered into OTrack at the end of Terms 2, 5 and 6. Teachers will use their professional judgement to determine whether a child is working within age-related expectations, above or below. They will base their judgements on the quality of the extended write that pupils produce at the end of each unit, and determine to what extent pupils have met the agreed success criteria for that genre of writing. Teachers will refer to the WACs (the school’s Writing Assessment Criteria) in Years 1 to 6 as a support for making judgements.

Impact

• Pupils will enjoy writing across a range of genres
• Pupils of all abilities will be able to succeed in all English lessons because work will be appropriately scaffolded
• Pupils will have a wide vocabulary that they use within their writing
• Pupils will have a good knowledge of how to adapt their writing based on the context and audience
• Pupils will leave primary school being able to effectively apply spelling rules and patterns they have been taught
• The % of pupils working at ARE within each year group will be at least in line with national averages.
• The % of pupils working at Greater Depth within each year group will be at least in line with national averages
• The will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils (e.g. disadvantaged vs non-disadvantaged)