Writing
At Spring Hill writing is... Creative, Purposeful and Inspiring.
The Intent, Implementation and Impact of our Curriculum
Our English Leader Mrs Sarchet
Intent
A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. We work hand in hand with parents & carers to provide a writing education of the highest quality, which celebrates everyone’s success in a happy, caring environment and where all our differences are valued. Our writing curriculum is designed to meet the content requirements of the DFE’s ‘National Curriculum in England: English Programmes of Study’ (2014) and the language and literacy sections of the ‘Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage’ (2014). Our curriculum aims to develop pupils’ competence in writing so that they can respond to and articulate themselves in spoken and written English. We intend for it to be exciting and engaging by choosing quality texts and by providing a vocabulary rich environment.
Implementation
Writing at Spring Hill is taught through a daily Literacy lesson, daily GPAS session (KS2), handwriting and daily phonics session (KS1/ EYFS). Phonics follows the Read Write Inc. scheme in streamed groups within EYFS and across Key Stage 1 ensuring all children can make rapid progress. Spelling is taught using the Spelling Shed scheme, supported with other grammar and punctuation activities. Spelling Shed encourages creative, active and quick tasks where children are enthused and challenged in their learning. We ensure that, with the use of a quality text, that our daily writing sessions are enriched with quality vocabulary, effective modelling and opportunities for creativity.
We also use Talk for Writing strategies throughout school to encourage the children to be exposed to many different styles of quality writing they can then use to inspire their own. Opportunities for writing for a real purpose, and across the curriculum are utilised by class teachers regularly and display the same standard as in our English books.
We plan using the Lancashire Units to ensure coverage of genre and progression through a year group, key stage and across school.
Impact
Throughout our writing, phonics, spelling, grammar and handwriting sessions, children learn to identify the key language features within each writing genre and the basic skills in writing are continually reinforced. Children are given the skills and tools to access other areas of the curriculum and life using their writing skills. The lifelong impact of our writing curriculum for our children is to create writers who are enthused by writing and are able to use writing as a tool in their everyday life.