Writing
At Ramsey Junior School, we aim for our pupils to write for a purpose and pleasure, enjoying the process of becoming an author. We want our children to understand the process of writing and be able to write for a variety of purposes and audiences with independence and confidence. We want our children to understand the power of the written word and the way it can entertain, inform, persuade and discuss.
We Intend:
To immerse our children in our high quality texts and encourage each child to believe in themselves as authors.
To create confident writers who develop stamina for writing throughout school and are able to write at length.
For all of our children to be independent writers, building on a range of skills as they work through each journey of writing.
For our children to have a secure understanding of the purpose of a text type, the purpose and intended impact of writing skills/tools and the ability to carefully select vocabulary with focus on the desired effect on the readers’ thoughts and feelings so that the impact of their writing is positive.
That our children are challenged and encouraged to take risks and view mistakes as a positive part of the learning process.
To provide opportunities for writing in all areas of the curriculum.
Ensure that all pupils know how to plan, practise and evaluate their work as well as carry out an effective edit and improvement process using feedback from the teacher.
To provide a balanced and broad curriculum, which encompasses writing practice and equips children with the skills and knowledge of writing processes including handwriting, spelling, grammar, widening vocabulary and writing for different styles.
To be inclusive of all children, including SEND by providing the appropriate scaffolding, support and writing tools those children need in their writing process to experience success.
That our children have high expectations of themselves where they take pride in all aspects of learning and in everything they produce.
The Writing Journey
Each writing journey begins with a hook/wow moment, which is linked to a high quality text to engage and inspire children’s imagination. The high quality text is introduced through well structured drama for writing activities.
Children explore and evaluate the key features of the writing purpose and pick out those that make an effective piece of writing. Children learn and practise relevant grammatical and vocabulary based skills which lend themselves to the writing outcome. Through the modelling of skills and techniques children become confident in the use of standard English.
Children are then guided through the writing experience: planning and creating longer pieces of writing, which will include the vocabulary and grammatical features.
Children will then have the opportunity to read and edit their work as modelled by the teacher. There will be opportunities to publish their writing throughout the year.
Working walls are an integral part of the writing process and are used in every classroom to support the children’s writing journey. On these too are modelled handwriting from the teacher rather than printed resources to create a rich environment for learning.
They are used to provide a visual stimulus for writing, to show examples of sentence types, shared writing and to encourage the use of ambitious vocabulary. A working wall should also reflect the grammar being taught as part of a unit.
Drama for Writing
Speaking and listening is at the heart of our English curriculum. We believe that developing orally confident pupils within a language rich environment is the foundation to the successful teaching of writing.
When planning a journey of writing, teachers select different drama conventions to support the pupils’ understanding and learning. These conventions can be used at any stage in a lesson or journey and the time taken can vary from a short or extended session. Through the use of a range of different drama conventions children can articulate ideas and orally rehearse sentences.
Writing in Early Years
As with all aspects of the Early Years curriculum, the skills and knowledge children need to write pervade all aspects of our daily routines. We take a holistic view of learning and children experience a balance of child initiated and adult directed activities across all aspects of learning.
Play is an excellent starting point in providing valuable writing experiences for children. We provide opportunities for, and encourage, mark making in all areas and use a range of resources such as paint and chalk as well as pens and pencils. The use of manipulatives, such as dough and tweezers, provides opportunities to develop fine motor skills and as appropriate, children move on to more formal handwriting sessions. We value children’s mark making and emergent writing and encourage children to attribute meaning to the marks they make. This enables them to see themselves as writers and develop the confidence to ‘have a go’.
Communication and language sits at the heart of Early Years. All our themes are based around high quality texts which immerse our children in language. We create story maps to encourage retelling so the vocabulary of the story is embedded. This gives our children the words and understanding to form good sentences verbally. Alongside this, adults scribe shared sentences using ‘think alouds’ to model the application of phonics, remember finger spaces and add punctuation. This enables children to internalise the rules and structures of writing.
Over time, these opportunities (alongside high quality phonics teaching) ensure children move from 'scribble' to letters then onto words and sentences which they, and others, can read.