Writing

In the Village Schools Partnership, we believe that speaking, listening, reading and writing are fundamental life skills which enable children to communicate effectively in all areas and equips them for the challenges they will face in the wider world.

We endeavor to create a love for literacy so that children leave the school with the skills of an excellent writer. We are determined that:

• children have the ability to write with fluency and each has an author's voice
• children are writing for a purpose and their writing is engaging; they think about the impact they want their writing to have on the reader and know how they will achieve this
• children develop writing from high quality text models
• children develop proficiency in writing in a range of genres and have a sophisticated bank of vocabuary and an excellent knolwedge of writing techniques to extend details or description
• opportunities for writing purposefully are developed through other areas of the curriculum and first-hand learning opportunities
• children develop writing stamina and perseverence
• children are provided with the skills and opportunities to embark on independent writing journeys both in and out of school
• children are motivated to routinely re-read, edit and improve their writing so every finished piece they produce is the best it can be
• children display excellent transcription skills that ensure their writing is well presented, punctuated and spelt correctly
• children have opportunities to perform and share their written work with others

Throughout their time in our schools, children develop their skills by exploring a wide-range of genres, with a focus on exploring a range of models of excellence and using these to guide the drafting and editing process. We expect the highest standards of writing every time a child writes, in any subject.

Implementation of our Writing Curriculum

We ensure that children develop a love of writing and develop skills to achieve this:

• Teachers ensure that short and long writing opportunities are regularly provided in a range of curriculum subjects
• Modelled, shared, guided and independent writing contexts frequently feature in the English curriculum
• Teaching sequences are routinely used to ensure childrne are clear of intended outcomes from the outset, have the opportunity to mimic other's work and then develop independence with proficient, informed writing tasks.
• Children are provided with clear expectations and outcomes when writing
• Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar and Phonics are taught explicitly and applied to their text: Little Wandle Letters and Sounds is used for Phonics, spelling is taught systematically using the Decision Spelling approach and Grammar is taught using 
• High quality texts are used as models for children's own writing
• Teachers use a four-stage model when teaching writing:
  1. Familiarisation
  2. Practising writing - guided, group or peer
  3. Independent writing
  4. Proof reading and guided editing to improve effect, punctuation and volcabulary
• Every teacher from Y2 upwards uses the Handwriting Rescue cursive approach to handwriting, developing fluency and legibility as quickly as possible.
• The use of pen-writing is encouraged from an early age

Our Writing Progression document can be found here: Writing Progression in the Village Schools Partnership

Measuring the Impact of our Writing Curriculum

• Children get regular written and verbal feedback to help them improve their writing
• Children are encouraged to self asses the effectiveness of their own writing against success criteria and edit their work routinely in order to improve it.
• Summative assessment of children’s writing is done each term; in  Y2 and Y6 against the end of key stage expectation tool.
• Completion of writing and grammar objectives is recorded on the Partnership's internal data package which then informs school leaders of trends at group and individual level.

Parent Guides for supporting Writing

these are in the process of construction, please check back later.

Links with other areas

Our strategy for the teaching of Writing is intrinsically linked to other areas of the English curriculum:

• Phonics
• Oracy
• Reading

Writing

In the Village Schools Partnership, we believe that speaking, listening, reading and writing are fundamental life skills which enable children to communicate effectively in all areas and equips them for the challenges they will face in the wider world.

We endeavor to create a love for literacy so that children leave the school with the skills of an excellent writer. We are determined that:

• children have the ability to write with fluency and each has an author's voice
• children are writing for a purpose and their writing is engaging; they think about the impact they want their writing to have on the reader and know how they will achieve this
• children develop writing from high quality text models
• children develop proficiency in writing in a range of genres and have a sophisticated bank of vocabuary and an excellent knolwedge of writing techniques to extend details or description
• opportunities for writing purposefully are developed through other areas of the curriculum and first-hand learning opportunities
• children develop writing stamina and perseverence
• children are provided with the skills and opportunities to embark on independent writing journeys both in and out of school
• children are motivated to routinely re-read, edit and improve their writing so every finished piece they produce is the best it can be
• children display excellent transcription skills that ensure their writing is well presented, punctuated and spelt correctly
• children have opportunities to perform and share their written work with others

Throughout their time in our schools, children develop their skills by exploring a wide-range of genres, with a focus on exploring a range of models of excellence and using these to guide the drafting and editing process. We expect the highest standards of writing every time a child writes, in any subject.

Implementation of our Writing Curriculum

We ensure that children develop a love of writing and develop skills to achieve this:

• Teachers ensure that short and long writing opportunities are regularly provided in a range of curriculum subjects
• Modelled, shared, guided and independent writing contexts frequently feature in the English curriculum
• Teaching sequences are routinely used to ensure childrne are clear of intended outcomes from the outset, have the opportunity to mimic other's work and then develop independence with proficient, informed writing tasks.
• Children are provided with clear expectations and outcomes when writing
• Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar and Phonics are taught explicitly and applied to their text: Little Wandle Letters and Sounds is used for Phonics, spelling is taught systematically using the Decision Spelling approach and Grammar is taught using 
• High quality texts are used as models for children's own writing
• Teachers use a four-stage model when teaching writing:
  1. Familiarisation
  2. Practising writing - guided, group or peer
  3. Independent writing
  4. Proof reading and guided editing to improve effect, punctuation and volcabulary
• Every teacher from Y2 upwards uses the Handwriting Rescue cursive approach to handwriting, developing fluency and legibility as quickly as possible.
• The use of pen-writing is encouraged from an early age

Our Writing Progression document can be found here: Writing Progression in the Village Schools Partnership

Measuring the Impact of our Writing Curriculum

• Children get regular written and verbal feedback to help them improve their writing
• Children are encouraged to self asses the effectiveness of their own writing against success criteria and edit their work routinely in order to improve it.
• Summative assessment of children’s writing is done each term; in  Y2 and Y6 against the end of key stage expectation tool.
• Completion of writing and grammar objectives is recorded on the Partnership's internal data package which then informs school leaders of trends at group and individual level.

Parent Guides for supporting Writing

these are in the process of construction, please check back later.

Links with other areas

Our strategy for the teaching of Writing is intrinsically linked to other areas of the English curriculum:

• Phonics
• Oracy
• Reading