Writing

Intent

At Templefield, English and the teaching of English is embedded across the curriculum. Our aim is to ensure that every child progresses in the areas of reading, writing, speaking and listening. We believe in supporting our children to love reading and writing.

We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts. We believe in setting high standards in the presentation of writing along with setting the important foundations in spelling and grammar. We aim to inspire children in their writing by providing opportunities to develop and apply their writing skills across the curriculum.

Implementation

With this in mind, writing opportunities are timetabled for all year groups.

The Writing Curriculum at Templefield is based upon the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage and the 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England. These documents provide a broad framework and outline the knowledge and skills taught in each Key Stage.

Daily phonics lessons for Reception and Year 1 support the teaching of spelling using phonics. In Year 2, we use the ELS Essential Spelling programme. This follows the same structure as our ELS Phonics programme. Years 3 and 4 follow the 'Spelling Shed' spelling scheme. All our Spelling and Phonics schemes follow the statutory requirements set out in the National Curriculum. We subscribe to Spelling Shed, an online platform where our children can log in to practice the spelling words and patterns being taught in school.

We have a whole school approach to the teaching of handwriting. We follow the ‘Teach Handwriting’ scheme. In all year groups, a handwriting pattern is introduced at the start of each week and short daily opportunities follow for the rest of the week to practice the taught skills.

Daily English lessons are taught throughout the school. We follow the 'Talk for Writing' approach to the teaching of writing. Talk for Writing is an approach to teaching writing that uses speaking and listening as a foundation for writing. It helps our children develop confidence, vocabulary, sentence structures and an understanding of how different types of texts are organised. The Talk for Writing approach that we follow has three stages:

Imitation – where our children “Learn it”

Our teachers introduces a model text, often through storytelling, actions, drama and discussion.
Our children learn the text orally and become familiar with its vocabulary, structure and language features.
Visual prompts and actions help our children remember key parts of the text.

Innovation – where we “Change it”

Our children use the model text as a framework for creating their own version.
They might change characters, settings, events or vocabulary while maintaining the underlying structure.
This allows our children to experiment with language while having a secure model to support them.

Invention – We “Invent it”

Our children apply what they have learned to create an independent piece of writing.
They draw on the structures, vocabulary and techniques developed during the earlier stages but have greater freedom over their content.

Using the Talk for Writing approach makes writing less daunting and more accessible for our children, particularly our children who struggle to generate ideas or organise their writing. Oral rehearsal gives pupils an opportunity to practise sentences before writing them down, while model texts provide examples of what successful writing can look like.

It also supports the development of vocabulary, grammar, sentence construction, creativity and confidence. Importantly, the approach is not simply about our children memorising stories; the intention is that our children gradually move from imitating a model to adapting it and eventually writing independently.

Grammar content relevant to each Year group is interwoven throughout our talk for Writing units and model texts. Grammar may be taught discretely and/or modelled, highlighted and discussed throughout the sequences of learning.

Writing is celebrated across the school with displays of the children's lovely writing along with sharing successes for the children in our celebration assemblies.

Impact

We measure the impact of our Writing Curriculum using the Early Years Framework and National Curriculum objectives. Our children's writing is assessed through teacher assessments of final written outcomes from a Talk for Writing unit of work (Hot Write). Our teachers assess against year group objectives and progress made is recorded and tracked termly. Pupil progress meetings take place termly where the class teachers, the subject leader and SLT discuss progress and actions to address gaps in learning for individuals and groups of learners. Internal and external moderations are also used as additional assessment tools.

Our writing provision is monitored by the subject leader and SLT through learning walks, observations and book monitoring. Feedback and good practices are shared with staff.

Our Quality First Teaching supports all learners withing the classroom. Our writing lessons facilitate a high-quality and inclusive classroom where teaching meets the needs of all pupils, so that our children can make good progress without requiring additional intervention. Children who are making less than expected progress are quickly identified so that appropriate support can be put into place and teaching can be further adapted to meet their needs. The progress of these children is monitored carefully to measure the impact of the support or intervention program used. Where progress continues to be a concern, the SENCo is consulted to plan further support.

Talk for Writing Whole School Text Map 2024/25 Writing Progression Map English Policy Teach Handwriting Spelling Shed