Writing
We see English as not just a stand-alone subject, but part of every subject and the school's curriculum. We want our children to write for a meaningful purpose and, where possible, through first hand experiences and visits. We make use of high-quality texts to inspire our children to write - picking texts that are both challenging for the children, engaging and offer good models for their own work.
Teachers review the work developed by children and identify how they can improve and enhance their writing. Independence is also developed, with the children reviewing their own writing, re-editing and developing final drafts.
Our English Curriculum is designed around the belief that all children should leave school with a love of reading and writing and this is central to our planning and delivery of lessons.
We follow the National Curriculum for Writing, Reading, Spoken Language and grammar, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation.
Our English topics are based around an exciting stimulus to get the children engaged from the outset. It might be a cry of help from a spy, signs of a giant Gruffalo roaming round the grounds or even a trail of mysterious tiny footprints trailing through the classroom!
Writing
Our teaching of writing is supported by the Talk 4 Writing approach. Through this approach, children learn, by heart, a sample text of the text type they are trying to write. This means that they are confident in the structure and content of the text type before they even start to write. It also means that by the time they leave us at the end of Year 6, they have a whole bank of texts in their memory that they can call on to support their writing. Alongside this, the children are taught how to capture their reader’s attention and how to use a variety of different sentence structures. They also learn how to select and use appropriate punctuation for the purpose of their writing. Children apply the handwriting they are taught to their writing and are encouraged to show great pride and presentation in all the work they produce.
Talk 4 Writing Process
The Talk for Writing approach enables children to read and write independently for a variety of audiences and purposes within different subjects. A key feature is that children internalise the language structures needed to write through ‘talking the text’, as well as close reading. The approach moves from dependence towards independence, with the teacher using shared and guided teaching to develop the ability in children to write creatively and powerfully.
The key phases of the Talk for Writing process, as outlined below, enable children to imitate orally the language they need for a particular topic, before reading and analysing it, and then writing their own version.
- Baseline assessment and planning- the cold task
Teaching is focused by initial assessment. Generally, teachers use what is known as a ‘cold’ task or a ‘have a go’ task. An interesting and rich starting point provides the stimulus and content but there is no initial teaching. The aim of this is to see what the children can do independently at the start of a unit, drawing on their prior learning. Assessment of their writing helps the teacher work out what to teach the whole class, different groups and adapt the model text and plan.
- The Imitation stage
The teaching begins with some sort of creative ‘hook’ which engages the children, often with a sense of enjoyment, audience and purpose. Writing challenges, such as informing Dr Who about how the Tardis works or producing leaflets for younger children about healthy eating, provide a sense of purpose. The model text is learned using a ‘text map’ and actions to strengthen memory and help students internalise the text. Activities such as drama are used to deepen understanding of the text.
Once children can ‘talk like the text’, the model, and other examples, are then read for vocabulary and comprehension, before being analysed for the basic text (boxing up) and language patterns, as well as writing techniques or toolkits.
- The Innovation stage
Once children are familiar with the model text, then the teacher leads them into creating their own versions. A new subject is presented and the teacher leads them through planning. With younger year groups, this is based on changing the basic map and retelling new versions. Older year groups use boxed-up planners and the teacher demonstrates how to create simple plans and orally develop ideas prior to writing. Ideas may need to be generated and organised or information researched and added to a planner. Shared and guided writing is then used to stage writing over a number of days so that students are writing texts bit by bit, concentrating on bringing all the elements together, writing effectively and accurately. Feedback is given during the lessons to build on the next days learning.
- Independent application and invention- the 'hot' task
Before this stage happens, the teacher may decide to give further input and rehearsal. Children are guided through planning, drafting and revising their work independently. It is essential to provide a rich starting point that taps into what students know and what matters so that their writing is purposeful. Writing may be staged over a number of days and there may be time for several independent pieces to be written.
- Final assessment- building on progression
The quality of the model texts is crucial to progress. The models should be short and provide excellent examples of the key linguistic features being focused on, and they should increase in difficulty. With younger children, the imitation stage will take longer, as the children need to establish the language patterns that will underpin their learning; this is so that they can see how to innovate on a text and write their own version independently.
