At Asquith Primary School, we understand the importance of being literate and pride ourselves in developing these core skills within a rich and broad curriculum. We aim for our pupils to become confident, able and avid writers in order to be able to communicate effectively in the wider world, creating global citizens. We promote high aspirations for all through our writing curriculum, showing our children that they can influence others through the expression of their ideas.

We aim for writing to be woven throughout the whole curriculum and for intended outcomes to link directly to the thematic units of work being delivered in class each half term. Memorable ‘hooks’ aim to engage the children and maximise the chances of writing from personal experience.

We want children to leave Asquith Primary School with the experience of studying, analysing and writing a range of genres of text that showcase and celebrate a diversity of authors, settings and characters.  In order to do this successfully, they will learn, practice, develop and revisit spelling, punctuation and grammar skills and will understand these as the building blocks of creating successful writing.

Our Writing curriculum is underpinned by 5 golden threads: High aspirations for all, Fostering resilience, Embedding key skills, Respecting diversity and Creating global citizens- with the intent that all our children have the opportunity to grow and succeed.

Intent

At Asquith Primary School, we want all pupils to perceive themselves as writers and to be motivated to write. We aim to prepare and equip children with the writing skills they need to become confident, independent writers and bring enjoyment into writing to inspire them. Through a balanced and broad curriculum, we intend to provide regular opportunities for children to write for different purposes across the curriculum, for example writing to describe, narrate, explain, instruct, give and respond to information, and argue. We strive to ensure that all children, regardless of background and experiences, are provided with the scaffolding support and tools that they need to succeed.

Writing for a purpose: We aim to expose our children to a variety of literature, genres and authors, using these texts to analyse the structures and the way a writer uses language to impact upon the reader. We endeavour to pique children’s interest in writing through the use of the outdoors, role play, drama, media and cross-curricular opportunities for writing where possible.

The writing process: We want Asquith children to see writing as a process in which we take ideas from our reading to inspire our writing.  We want to promote resilience in our children, therefore, writing and editing should not be seen as a chore but as a process in which they are reflecting upon, refining and improving their own work by responding to the constructive criticism of others.

Writing content: As a school, we have a clear progression map of skills across a wide range of different genre types.  To further support the independent writing, we teach grammar in context, so children have a greater understanding of how to use it in their writing and when drafting. 

Implementation

We teach the knowledge and skills for writing across school, as detailed in the English National Curriculum, through a variety of fiction and non-fiction text types.   At Asquith, we balance the teaching of grammar, transcription and composition, in order to develop confident writers who possess the skills to engage with and write a wide variety of texts.

Writing in EYFS

Early reading skills are taught from Nursery with a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and Language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include: sharing high-quality stories and poems, learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes, activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending and attention is given to high-quality language. At Asquith, we ensure Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception.

Organisation of sessions to support writing

Impact

Attainment - the number of children working at age-related expectations by the end of key stage 2 is broadly in line with national averages.

Progress - the progress pupils make is at least good for all groups.

Greater Depth - the number of children achieving a Greater Depth standard is increasing.

Inclusion - children from all groups access learning alongside their peers. Teachers make reasonable adjustments to support where needed.

Engagement - children are well engaged and enthusiastic about learning, acquiring and applying key knowledge and understanding across the curriculum. Ultimately, they love learning.

Knowledge and skills - pupils leave us equipped with the knowledge and skills to be avid readers and accurate, imaginative writers, ready for the next stage of their school career.