Writing at Wyndcliffe Primary School

We aim to develop pupils not only to become effective, independent writers who are able to communicate effectively within a range of genres but to also engage the interest of the audience. Writing outcomes are linked to the books we also use in our whole class Reading lessons. The aim of this is to engage children in texts they may not normally choose but to inspire the children to produce thoughtful and imaginative pieces of writing. Suggestions for writing outcomes are outlined on the long term planning to ensure that a range of genres are covered across the key stages. The audience, purpose and the form that the writing takes is the basis of all our writing units and is embedded throughout the writing process. This ensures children fully understand what they are writing, why they are writing and who they are writing it for. There is a mixture of non-fiction and narrative based writing opportunities which help to develop and embed the writing skills even further.

Writing is taught using the following approaches:

Modelling – this is where the teacher will demonstrate the desired outcome including the success criteria and the steps taken to achieve this.

Shared writing – this is where the teacher will use and mould the children’s idea to produce a quality piece of writing.

Guided writing – this is where the teacher will work with a group of children to direct and support the writing process in order to achieve the desired outcome.

All pupils then have the opportunity to plan, edit and draft their work before publishing their finished piece.

Drama and role-play are also used to encourage interactive learning and promote the children’s imagination, as an aid to scaffolding their writing. At the start of the writing process, children are exposed to a ‘WAGOLL’ (What a good one looks like), which enables them to capture ideas and secure their understanding.

Throughout the writing journey, teachers support the children through the use of working walls as well as specific targets given for the needs of groups and individuals.

We celebrate the progress of the writing journey for each child by displaying a piece of work by every child each half term.

Understanding where are children are and how to make future learning more progressive all teachers use TAFs to support teachers in making robust and accurate judgements for pupils at the end of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. The interim frameworks set out the standard(s) a pupil will be assessed against at the end of the key stage for writing. Teachers also take part in several internal and external moderation sessions. Opportunities to moderate allows for consistency of judgements and also provides a platform for members of staff to enhance their own confidence in moderating.