English | All Souls' Catholic Primary School

Subject Lead: Mrs Jo Hartwell [email protected]

What is our vision for English Writing at All Souls?

A person’s ability to write is ultimately their ability to express their thoughts, feelings, emotions and understanding of themselves and world around them. Unlocking and developing a child’s ability to write can have a profound impact on their ability to achieve across the curriculum and develop academically, creatively and emotionally. Therefore, at All Souls, our vision is to empower every child with the knowledge, understanding and skills so that they can fully articulate themselves in a unique and personal way recognising the power of writing as a communication tool.

We believe that writing is an evolutionary process, which involves the development of children’s listening, thinking, speaking, observational and fine motor skills. It is through equipping children with these individual skills and developing them progressively, through a coherent and carefully structured curriculum, that they are able to express themselves fully in writing. Having regular purposeful and creative opportunities to amalgamate and apply these skills is what brings this writing to life.

Writing is a crucial part of our curriculum at All Souls Catholic Primary School and as a result, by the end of Year Six we intend for our children to have developed a love of writing and to be able to express their thoughts, feelings and ideas in a clear, articulate and passionate way. We want children to have a strong knowledge of the grammatical principals and rules of the English language as well as a clear understanding the facets of text-type specific skills which develops the ability of independent, expressive writing. Outcomes are planned with a real purpose and audience in mind. The children are immersed through each stage of the writing journey, and they understand how each step of their learning will contribute to the outcome.

At All Souls we ensure that all children make progress in their writing skills by delivering exciting, purposeful lessons which can be accessed by every learner, ensuring full inclusion of SEND provision. With guidance and encouragement, we aim to support writers who can re-read, edit and improve their own writing, enabling pupils to confidently use the essential skills of grammar, punctuation and spelling. We set high expectations so that children take pride in their work and have a fluent, cursive handwriting style. Ultimately, it is vital that we provide varied and rich opportunities for children to express their ideas, beliefs and thoughts through stimulating and wide-ranging writing opportunities to develop the next generation of confident, articulate citizens in God’s world.

How do we achieve this vision?

Writing at All Souls is taught for an hour daily through a sequence of lessons which build up to prepare children to write a longer piece of writing in line with The National Curriculum 2014 for English. Staff have the freedom to choose exciting and engaging stimuli which helps children to access different text types and subjects, including: cross curricular writing, hook days, pictures and videos. From the Foundation Stage onwards, language development and communication skills are a key priority. Children are motivated to use and apply new vocabulary and grammar structures by exploring them through real life contexts, learning to become fluent speakers and having numerous opportunities to practise their letter formation, phonics and writing skills.

Children in KS1 and KS2 begin their learning journey by exploring the structural and language features of a text type, which then develops into practising new grammar objectives. Grammar sessions are delivered twice-weekly with a new objective from the year group covered each week. The first session explores the skill in a fun, exciting activity with the second session allowing the children to use it in practice. The children then have discrete lessons in which they plan, draft, edit, proofread and publish their work, allowing them to understand clearly the writing process. Pupils have an English book where they record most of their lessons, with a separate SPAG book for new grammar learning as well as a drafting book which helps the children to understand the difference between a first attempt and a final ‘best’ piece of work.

Writing is a crucial skill to be successful in all parts of the curriculum, therefore features which they have learnt in English can be revisited in other subjects to show that good writing is consistent across all areas. Children are able to take part in national writing competitions which lead to children’s work being published in books which improves a love of writing across the school.

Classroom environments are well suited to show children the progression in the writing process, including the use of working walls to add new vocabulary, displaying the current unit’s purpose and audience, key spellings including misconceptions for the year group and unit as well as good models for the text type they are focussing on. Word mats are used during writing lessons to ensure the children have access to a variety of vocabulary as well as dictionaries and thesauruses regularly being used by children to ensure accurate spelling and effective vocabulary choices are being made regularly.

How does this impact our children?

Children in our school achieve highly in the Phonics Screening check and in the KS1 and KS2 writing and assessments. In 2022, 81% of children reached the expected level in Writing at the end of KS2 which was above national results.

The impact on our children is clear: progress and transferable skills. We aim that by the end of KS2, all of our children have made considerable progress from their starting points in EYFS. By the time our children are in upper Key Stage 2, all genres of writing are familiar to them and the focus on creativity, writer’s craft, sustained writing and manipulation of grammar and punctuation skills, creating opportunities for writers to demonstrate a greater depth standard.

At All Souls, the impact of the writing curriculum is felt inside and outside of the classroom. Children are able to articulate their ideas and feel confident to take part in pupil leadership groups throughout KS1 and KS2.