English - Writing
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At Bosley St Mary's CE Primary School, we believe that every child should develop the confidence, knowledge and skills to express themselves clearly and effectively through writing.
Writing is an essential life skill. It enables children to communicate their ideas, share their imagination, explain their understanding and participate fully in the world around them. We aim to nurture enthusiastic, independent writers who take pride in their work and understand the power of the written word.
Our writing curriculum is carefully designed around the National Curriculum for England, with high expectations for every child and a strong emphasis on securing the foundations of successful writing.
How We Teach Writing
We have developed our own carefully sequenced writing curriculum, designed to meet the needs of our children and ensure progression from the Early Years through to Year 6.
Our approach combines high-quality literature, explicit teaching, purposeful practice and opportunities for children to write for a range of audiences and purposes.
Our teaching focuses on four essential elements:
- Transcription: Developing accurate handwriting, spelling and the physical fluency needed to write confidently.
- Sentence construction: Explicitly teaching children how to form, develop and manipulate sentences, using grammar and punctuation accurately.
- Composition: Teaching children to generate, organise and communicate their ideas through carefully structured writing.
- Vocabulary and language: Developing a rich understanding of words and language, enabling children to express themselves with precision, creativity and confidence.
Children are taught through clear explanations, effective modelling, shared writing, guided practice and increasingly independent application.
Building Strong Foundations
Writing begins long before children are able to form sentences independently.
In the Early Years, we prioritise communication and language, storytelling, mark-making, fine motor development and early letter formation. Children are encouraged to develop their ideas through talk, play and meaningful writing opportunities.
As children progress through school, we build systematically on these foundations through explicit teaching of handwriting, spelling, sentence construction and composition.
Phonics provides the essential foundations for early spelling, supported by our Read Write Inc. programme. As children become more confident writers, they develop increasingly sophisticated spelling knowledge, grammatical understanding and control over their writing.
Writing With Purpose
High-quality texts provide inspiration and models for children's writing, helping them understand how authors use language to engage, inform and influence their readers.
Throughout their time at Bosley, children experience a broad range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, learning to write for different purposes and audiences.
Where appropriate, writing is connected to other curriculum subjects, giving children meaningful opportunities to apply their knowledge, develop subject-specific vocabulary and communicate their understanding.
Developing Independent Writers
We believe that successful writing requires both creativity and secure technical knowledge.
Teachers explicitly model the writing process, helping children understand how to plan, construct, revise and improve their work. Through regular practice, feedback and reflection, children develop accuracy, fluency and increasing independence.
We place particular importance on the presentation of written work, encouraging children to develop pride, care and responsibility in everything they produce.
Writing for Every Learner
We maintain high expectations for all children, recognising that writing can present different challenges for different learners.
Through careful assessment, appropriate scaffolding, targeted teaching and opportunities for further practice, we help children develop the knowledge and confidence they need to succeed. Children are supported to build secure foundations whilst being challenged to develop and extend their writing.
Our ambition is for every child to leave Bosley as a confident, capable and independent writer, able to communicate effectively, express their creativity and use writing successfully throughout their lives.
Expanders
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Spelling and Grammar
In Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, children are taught how to segment words in order to spell them through the teaching of systematic synthetic phonics using the Read Write Inc. programme, which underpins reading and writing, as well as spelling. Our phonics teaching is characterised by planned structure, fast pace, praise and reinforcement, perceptive responses and active participation by all children. Children are grouped according to their phonics knowledge. To further develop children’s understanding of phonics, children in Year 2 receive additional spelling lessons. These structured lessons encourage children to apply their knowledge of phonics to unknown words and develop their understanding of spelling patterns.
In Key Stage 2 we teach regular Spelling and Grammar lessons. Children are introduced to a certain spelling pattern and practice the spellings throughout the week. Each year group has a different set of spellings relating to the national curriculum. They practise spellings during handwriting and by completing tasks relating to their spellings such as anagrams and crosswords.
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Handwriting
Neat and presentable handwriting is modelled throughout the school by all staff. In Blossom class there is a focus on letter formation and presentation. This is continued in Willow Class and cursive handwriting is encouraged in Oak Class to ensure children produce work they are proud of.
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Leadership and Management
The subject leader's role is to empower colleagues to teach writing to a high standard and support staff in the following ways:
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By keeping up to date on current issues; disseminating relevant information and providing training for staff members (either directly or through other professionals)
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Leading by example by modelling lessons or styles of teaching
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Having a knowledge of the quality of writing provision across the school and using this to provide a coaching and mentoring role
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Identifying and acting on development needs of staff members
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Monitoring expectations, provision and attainment across the school and providing feedback to develop practice further in order to raise standards
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Monitoring and Evaluation
The quality of teaching and learning is monitored as part of the appraisal process through lesson observations and through the progress and attainment documents. In addition, continuity and progression across the school is monitored by the subject leader as is the implementation and impact of Assessment for Learning. The subject action plan and external advisors identify actions intended to raise standards.
The English Subject Leader will also provide an annual summary report to the Headteacher in which s/he evaluates the strengths and weaknesses in writing and indicates areas for further improvement.
A named member of the governing body is briefed to oversee the teaching and learning of English. The link governor meets, at least termly, with the subject leader to review progress.
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Partnerships with parents
In September parents are invited to attend a whole school development plan meeting where they are informed of school priorities and year group overviews. Also parents are informed on how they can help their child at home by attending English and Mathematics workshops. Parents are kept informed of topics that are being covered through a newsletter sent half-termly. During Parents' Evenings curricular targets are shared and a written report is completed annually in the Summer Term. Homework is set weekly. Reception and Key Stage 1 can choose an activity from a list. Key Stage 2 are set tasks.