Writing Curriculum
At St. Luke’s, we aim for every child to leave us as a confident and competent communicator by developing their Speaking and Listening skills to enable effective inference and comprehension. Our children understand that writing is a vital lifelong skill, an art form and a craft that can lead to positive self-esteem. As a school, we provide our children the fundamental skills in spelling, punctuation and grammar to ensure they are confident to approach any writing opportunity. We provide our children with the skills to become reflective and determined thinkers who understand that perseverance and the willingness to alter, correct and adapt their writing will lead to great success and a feeling of pride.
Through a love of reading and listening to stories, we help their creativity and imagination to develop new worlds and characters. Through a varied and progressive curriculum, our children will learn how to use their writing skills to reach and influence various audiences – to entertain, inform, persuade and discuss. All our children are supported to access equal opportunities in writing to help them reach their God given potential.
Writing in EYFS
Within the Early Years setting, children are encouraged from the start to begin making marks on paper. ‘Funky Fingers’ activities encourage the development of fine motor skills and our use of ‘Write Dance’, an approach that uses drama and music, motivates and encourages children to write. Children are encouraged to attempt independent emergent writing and their efforts are valued and praised. They are given opportunities to write independently and are encouraged to do so often, they are also supported in small groups and individually, where necessary.
Writing in Key Stages 1 and 2
At St. Luke’s, we recognise that reading and writing are entwined. Our writing curriculum is enriched with high-quality, diverse texts that not only enhance vocabulary, but also expose children to various genres of writing. Our children experience a wide range of stimuli, including real-life experiences, texts, pictures, videos and cross-curricular learning. Our approach ensures that writing is purposeful; children are encouraged to write with a specific target audience in mind, thereby making their work relevant and meaningful. They are encouraged to ‘think like an author’ and to take risks when making stylistic choices about their writing.
The 2-week teaching cycle – Key Stages 1 and 2
Over the 2-week teaching cycle (3 weeks for stories), teaching staff will guide pupils through the Writing Process below.
Stage 1 – Read like a writer
- Purpose and audience
- Explore as a reader
Stage 2 – Develop ideas/ skills
- Generate ideas
- Sentence/ skill work
Stage 3 – Apply skills
- Plan
- Draft
- Revise
- Proofread
- Publish
Free Writing
We aim to inspire, excite and engage children in authentic, original and free-flowing expression of thoughts. Free Writing aims to foster a love for writing by granting children the freedom to choose their subject. Our pupils are provided with the opportunity to engage in free writing three to four times a term, using a picture prompt to spark their creativity. These prompts may relate to their current topic, a significant event or a seasonal theme. Children are encouraged to express themselves by selecting their preferred genre, theme and grammatical structures.
Handwriting
Handwriting is taught explicitly to become an embedded skill in children’s writing. In EYFS, children begin their handwriting journey through mark-making and drawing, before building up to creating correctly formed letters.
In KS1, children begin by consolidating the correct pencil grip and basic letter formation. They are taught to form letters clearly and consistently, with attention to size and spacing. As they become secure in these skills, they are gradually introduced to pre-cursive writing, preparing them for joined handwriting in KS2.
In LKS2, children will build on their earlier skills by developing fluent, joined handwriting. They will focus on writing that is legible, consistent and efficient.
In UKS2, children are expected to write with increasing fluency, speed and accuracy. They should maintain legibility in joined handwriting when writing at speed and develop a personal handwriting style that is fluent and consistent.
Dictation
Dictation is an important tool we use to support children’s development in spelling, punctuation and handwriting. It involves pupils writing down spoken sentences, helping them to:
- Apply their knowledge of spelling rules and patterns in context
- Improve listening and concentration skills
- Reinforce correct sentence structure and punctuation
- Build confidence in independent writing
Dictation is used across all year groups. In Early Years and Year 1, it is linked to our phonics sessions. From Year 2 onwards, children will complete dictation linked to their current spelling rules.
Spelling
Spelling is taught both explicitly and in context, following the St Luke's Letters and Sounds programme in EYFS - Year 1 and the Spelling Shed scheme in Year 2 - Year 6. All children from EYFS to Year 6 receive spelling learning that is underpinned by their phonological understanding.
We believe spelling is a shared responsibility between home and school. In school, all children from Year 2 – Year 6 participate in a weekly spelling lesson where morphology and etymology are used to support the teaching of spelling rules. Children will continue to practise these spellings daily in school and at home. Parents are informed of their child’s spellings each term as part of their weekly homework. This will give parents an awareness of what spelling rules have been covered and what spelling rules are coming up each term. Booklets of these spellings can be found on the year group pages of the school website.
Celebrating Writing at St. Luke’s
At St. Luke’s all children’s work is valued and celebrated. Every classroom in school has a display board that celebrates the fantastic writing that children produce. We celebrate our amazing writers each week in our school newsletter as part of our ‘Author’s Area’, where writing produced in school, or at home, can be celebrated.
Assessment
Teachers at St. Luke’s are continuously carrying out formative assessment. Children are given feedback either verbally or written every lesson to move their learning forward. Where possible, general misconceptions can be addressed either during the lesson or at the start of the next lesson. If the misconception is a deeper one, then this should be reflected in the planning slides for the following lesson. When marking independent writing in the Big Write books, a whole-class misconception will be identified and addressed in subsequent lessons.
Teachers assess children’s independent writing at the end of each term and judgements are moderated within each year group. Teacher frameworks and exemplification documents are used in every year group to support teachers’ judgements.
Assessments are used to inform planning and to identify children who need extra support to address any gaps in learning or need further challenge.
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