Writing

Writing at Four Lanes Infant School

Intent

At Four Lanes Infant School we want to nurture enthusiastic and confident writers, who are able to apply their skills across a range of meaningful contexts and purposes. Writing is a crucial life skill that the children develop during their time at Four Lanes, with a carefully planned for writing curriculum.  We help to develop the children into resilient writers, who understand the different purposes for writing.  We want children to have a love of writing and to be able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly through the written word.  We want their love of reading and storytelling to be evident in their own narratives, and for our exciting curriculum to inspire them to write about a range of topics. We also want to start their children on their journey of reflecting on their own writing, so that they become writers who can re-read and edit their own writing.  We encourage children to take care with their written work, presenting it neatly with letters formed correctly.  The pupils are given the opportunity to talk about their writing and to read it aloud to teachers and their peers, allowing them to take pride in what they have achieved.

Implementation

At Four Lanes Infant School we strongly believe that children need to develop their fine and gross motor skills in order to be ready to write.  Therefore, these activities are threaded throughout the curriculum.  Opportunities are evident through specific planned time, such as funky fingers in Year R and Year 1, as well as numerous opportunities throughout the day in continuous and enhanced provision.  The children’s more formal writing journey starts in Year R alongside their reading journey, following Little Wandle for Letters and Sounds Revised SSP.  They systematically learn to write the graphemes that they are taught to read, and build up to writing words.  The graphemes learnt are then incorporated into the children’s continuous provision for them to practice.  This continues until the children have learnt enough graphemes to be able to write words.  Following our early writing progression, the children are then encouraged to build up their writing from words to captions to sentences.  This is achieved through an enriching and inspiring curriculum, which motivates children to write, as it is personalized to their needs and interests.  When in Year 1 and Year 2, we follow the National Curriculum to carefully plan the writing curriculum, which is planned around a topic, often with a book hook and a clear end of unit outcome.  This gives the children meaning and purpose to their writing, with opportunities to rehearse and practice before being expected to produce a final outcome.  Children learn to form their letters correctly using the Little Wandle for Letters and Sounds SSP, with rhymes to help support them.  In Year 2 they are then taught the lead in and out to form a cursive script that leads to joined writing.  In Early Years, children are taught to spell unknown words phonetically, with some tricky words being taught.  In Year 1 and 2 as the children have a greater knowledge of the phonics code, they will be encouraged to apply their phonics accurately when spelling and taught spelling rules.  All staff are very skilled in planning to meet each child’s need, meaning that each child is working on a writing target that is appropriate for them, ensuring progression for all and allowing all children to feel positive and confident towards writing.

Impact

Writing at Four Lanes is assessed in a variety of ways to check children’s progress.  Throughout every writing session teachers and learning support assistants give both verbal feedback and mark their work, giving children the instant feedback of knowing what they have been successful at and what they need more practice on, giving them clear focus for their writing.  They will also be given more support in the lesson if it is felt necessary.  As the children write longer pieces, some written feedback may be provided.  The writing is assessed and monitored every day to ensure that the children are correctly planned for in the subsequent lesson with lessons beginning with retrieval of prior learning or as a reaction to the previous days learning e.g. spelling & grammar practice. Every half term, the children’s writing is formally assessed and moderated in school, allowing the chance for teachers to monitor the progress of each child and make carefully plan for their next steps and any extra support that may be required.  Teachers also take part in moderation and standardisation with other schools in Hampshire to ensure that judgements are sound and sufficient evidence is collected to show a child’s writing journey.