WRITING

 "There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you." Beatrix Potter 

Intent 

At Todwick Primary School, we believe that writing is a key skill for life both inside and out of education and that is why it features across all the subjects taught at our school. Our aim is to provide children with key transferrable writing skills to build on year on year, that can be used throughout each phase of their education and prepare them for secondary school.

Teaching children to write for a range of purposes and audiences can be very exciting, especially here at Todwick where we provide children with a range of engaging hooks to capture their imagination. We aim to provide the children with varied reasons for writing and believe that this not only produces higher quality writing, but allows our learners to apply their skills to a range of different contexts. 

Oracy is prioritised in our writing curriculum in order to build vocabulary for all learners and increase understanding of trickier texts used across our curriculum. Discussion, questioning and learning texts with actions all increase understanding and prepare our children with the tools they need in order to be successful in their writing. Our aim is for ALL learners to achieve their full potential in writing and we are committed to providing the scaffolds and challenge needed in order for our children to achieve this.

Implementation

Children receive a one hour English lesson daily and are exposed to age-related expectations for writing within a range of texts. Writing and reading are closely linked and we ensure that children are reading daily in order to build on their knowledge of different genres of writing and develop their vocabulary. All classes use a the whole school policy to plan writing units which encourages plenty of discussion, questioning, imitating and learning texts along with actions. 

Teachers aim to plan creative writing session to inspire and motivate our children. This could involve using the outdoors, making characters come to life, utilising class texts and taking inspiration from our immersive classrooms. For example, biographical writing inspired by a real life visit from Ernest Shackleton and wedding invitiations for the 'Scarecrows' Wedding'.

A high standard of joined handwriting is modelled across school and children are encouraged to imitate this. Handwriting is taught and practised regularly in separate books but is expected to be evidenced throughout all work produced.

Adult guides and supporting resources are provided with each lesson. However, it is essential that resources are adapted to support the different learning needs of the children in each class. 

Impact

Through the implementation of our writing procress, pupils will leave Todwick Primary as confident and capable writers. They will be able to communicate effectively through a range of forms and they will have developed a genuine love and appreciation of writing.