Writing at Old Sarum Primary
Vision
We are ambitious for all our children and strive to ensure that we provide them all with the skills needed for them to become successful writers; that they enjoy writing and view themselves as effective, competent writers whilst appreciating our rich and varied literary heritage. We aim that all children should possess a strong command of the spoken and written language.
Our writing curriculum is built around a wide range of diverse, high quality texts. In each year group children engage with poems, picture books, novels and visual texts as inspiration and models for their own writing. The development of oracy skills is a focus of our curriculum and the use of high quality texts serve as an inspiration and models for writing. We encourage progressive writing journeys based around a Talk for Writing Journey. A high focus is placed on the development of oracy skills so children rehearse and apply varied structures in their writing.
How is writing taught and why
Planning is built around the Talk4Writing (T4W) methodology. We choose our texts and engaging hooks from an exploration of the backgrounds of our students, our beliefs about high quality education and our values. Children are taught and learn a ‘model text’ through oral repetition.
Children are guided through 3 stages to scaffold independent writing following relevant grammar and skills progression for their
Stage 1: imitation
Stage 2: shared write
Stage 3: independent application
Our aim is that children will
- Have a good understanding of the purpose of writing and can write effectively for a range of purposes and audiences.
- Can plan, draft, edit and improve their writing
- Have a wide vocabulary that they use within their writing.
- Leave primary school being able to effectively apply spelling rules and patterns they have been taught.
- Have an understanding of key grammatical concepts and rules to apply to independent writing.
Assessment
Children complete a ‘cold write’ at the beginning of a new unit, this is used by teachers to inform their unit planning and identify toolkit features for coverage.
Children complete a ‘hot write’ at the end of each unit so they can as independently as possible, apply newly taught skills.
Weekly spelling is taught and assessed which compliments daily grammar teaching. On a termly basis, children complete NFER assessments in both spelling and grammar and adaptations to planning and curriculum are made as appropriate.
Pupil voice is also used as an assessment tool