Wimborne First School & Nursery

Writing

'You can make anything by writing'. 

C.S Lewis 

Intent 

At Wimborne First School and Nursery, we follow the Literary Curriculum for shared reading, writing and spelling. The Literary Curriculum is a complete, thematic approach to the teaching of primary English that places children's literature at its core. The scheme has a complete book-based approach, with a wide range of literature. Teachers ensure that the children are engaged to become critical readers whilst becoming confident and informed writers. All National Curriculum requirements are embedded, making the grammar purposeful and there are always a mixture of shorter, longer and extended writing outcomes where the audience and purpose is clear and exciting for children!

Implementation 

English provision at Wimborne First School and Nursery, ensures planning outlines clear and progressive learning journeys. Plans focus on outcomes and follow a cohesive sequence so that learning makes sense and is rooted in a strong context. Depth is engendered as children revisit key objectives and skills within different texts and contexts, building understanding over time with frequent opportunities to apply their learning across varied writing opportunities. Books are grouped within themes to ensure links and connections are made across the curriculum.

The programmes of study for writing at key stages 1 and 2 are constructed similarly to those for reading:

• transcription (spelling and handwriting)
• composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing)

It is essential that teaching develops pupils’ competence in these two areas, alongside how to plan, revise and evaluate their writing. Each unit of writing shows a clear independent outcome. Learning will be progressive and ensures the children are taught the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to complete the independent outcome and evidence good progress within and between units of work.

Reading into Writing

We follow a ‘reading into writing’ model to teach writing. Teachers begin using the books mapped out in our reading diet (see the end of this page for the link to our reading diet). This ensures that the chosen text is fit for purpose, is of high quality and the teaching of vocabulary can be planned for. Purpose, audience and form are key drivers in each unit of writing. These are shared with the children at the start of a unit and can been seen on the learning journey overviews within children’s English books.

Using the Literacy Curriculum, we plan following the six principles;

Spelling

For children off the Read, Write, Inc phonics programme, we follow the 'Spelling Seed' which complements the Literary Curriculum. It provides weekly, contextualised sequences of sessions for the teaching of spelling that include open-ended investigations and opportunities to practise and apply within meaningful and purposeful contexts. The objectives and spelling words match the Literary Curriculum text being covered to make for purposeful application. Sessions are taught as 30 minute one-off lessons, across three days. When planning reading into writing journeys, teachers carefully consider the unit rules that are currently being taught in the spelling sessions to weave these into the writing lesson. 

Children are expected to read and write the common exception words linked to their year group, which is part of the 'Spelling Seed'. These words are taught and used within writing lessons as well as revised every week as part of our spelling programme and daily phonics lessons. 

Handwriting

At Wimborne First School and Nursery, we use the Nelson Handwriting from Years 1 to 4. It introduces cursive handwriting in step-by-step stages in line with the National Curriculum expectations. 

The Golden Post- Box

To encourage children to join their handwriting and show consistency across all curriculum areas, the children have the opportunity to gain a pen licence. Children can write a letter and post it in our golden post-box, inviting a member of the Senior Leadership team to come into their classroom and look across a range of their books. If children achieve the golden rules set out, they achieve their pen licence.