Intent

Our aim is to ensure that every child within our school, regardless of background and starting point, leaves Battle Primary Academy as a competent writer with an understanding of the conventions of Standard English and when to use it effectively.

Children will be treated as writers from the earliest stage – developing ideas of communication and building on writing skills they have acquired from their environment. Exciting and meaningful experiences will be provided for children to develop their skills and write for a range of purposes and audiences. The ability to write with confidence in a variety of situations will mean children leave BPA fully prepared for their secondary education, ready to achieve their aspirations and thrive in adult life.

The writing curriculum at Battle encourages children to master transcription skills and immerse themselves in different text types, understand the features and impact of these, and realise the importance of them beyond education. A secure knowledge of spelling and grammar and an understanding of how to edit writing is taught throughout the school in a systematic and progressive way. The content of writing lessons is planned to build on the children’s previous knowledge as well as introduce new learning in a fun and memorable way.

Implementation

We use a text-based approach to literacy units – immersing children in carefully chosen texts through a range of reading, writing and oracy activities. The units, up to Year 6, also include a ‘Talk for Writing’ phase that allows pupils to have opportunities to orally explore quality model texts, magpie words and phrases, internalise text types and understand them fully before writing. By the time the children are ready to begin innovating and applying their knowledge independently, they have developed a toolkit including language patterns, punctuation and key phrases, that enable them to write confidently and competently for a range of audiences and purposes.

The National Curriculum and EYFS Framework is used to inform the planning and delivery of the writing curriculum at Battle. Using Talk for Writing, composition is taught explicitly through modelled and shared writing activities. Teachers regularly model the process by thinking out loud, showing how and why they have structured their writing in particular ways and by explicitly showing how to edit and improve. Children’s writing is scaffolded (in order that all children achieve the outcomes) and supported through live marking. Children have opportunities to write in small groups, pairs and independently. Repeated practise and frequent reviewing of material ensures that children remember key language and features with a rich knowledge-of-genre writing base.

Transcription is taught alongside composition; children are given opportunities to practise handwriting and understand the importance of learning spellings in a memorable and interesting way. Accurate age-related spelling is expected in all writing across the curriculum and children are taught and given time to edit their spellings and recognise their own errors. During discrete Read, Write Inc sessions children are explicitly shown how to apply their developing skills to their writing. Phonics and spelling rules are referred to when modelling writing and supporting children in all lessons.

The teaching of grammar and Standard English is an integral part of every writing lesson. Using the National Curriculum, key grammar skills are mapped out progressively and systematically taught across the school. Grammar and punctuation skills are made the focus of a week’s English planning and are taught in an understand, explore and identify, apply, use model.

Impact

From the regular monitoring of plans, books and pupil interviews, it is clear that writing is taught in a systematic and progressive way, that prior teaching and learning is considered and that learning is memorable. Children enjoy talking about their writing – about its construction, purpose and effect on the reader. They are confident to share their writing with staff, children and parents alike.

As a result of the explicit teaching of writing skills, cross-curricular writing is of the same sort of standard as writing completed in English units. All writing is planned with a clear intention and audience; work is published in a variety of ways.

Teachers use the BPA progression statements and year group TAFs alongside a range of the child’s writing to monitor progress and assess them at key points throughout the school year. In-school, cross-trust and local authority moderations ensure accuracy when assessing. Children’s attainment is shared with parents and carers three times per academic year. SLT monitor the teaching and learning of writing frequently to ensure that standards remain consistently high and to identify areas of ongoing CPD.