Subject leaders: 

Mrs Jen Dawkins (EYFS, KS1 English and Phonics)

Ms Philippa Bates (Year 2 -Year 6 Writing)

If you have any questions regarding writing, please contact Mrs Dawkins or Ms Bates via the school office.

Intent: 

Writing is one of our five key aims here at Halton. 

Our aim is for every child to acquire the skills to enjoy writing independently.

We believe that writing is a key skill for life both inside and out of education and that is why it features across all the subjects taught across our school. Our aim is to provide children with key transferrable writing skills to build on year on year, that can be used throughout each phase of their education and prepare them for secondary school. We  want pupils at Halton to be confident and creative writers, able to communicate effectively for whatever purpose they choose. 

At  Halton School, we intend to create confident writers who develop stamina for writing throughout school. We aim for all of our children to be independent writers, building on a range of skills as they work through each journey of writing and for them to be able to write for a range of purposes and audiences. Throughout this journey, we ensure the children of Halton School are immersed in a range of genres and have a clear understanding of purpose. Our learners will have a secure understanding of the purpose of a text type, the intended impact of writing skills/tools and the ability to carefully select vocabulary with careful attention to the desired effect on the readers’ thoughts and feelings. Our learners are challenged and encouraged to take risks and view mistakes as part of the learning process. Our learners should always set high expectations for themselves where they take pride in all aspects of learning and in everything they produce.

Our aim is for ALL learners to achieve their full potential in writing and we are committed to providing the scaffolds and challenge needed in order for our children to achieve this.

Implementation: 

Children receive a daily  writing lesson in English and are exposed to age-related expectations for writing within a range of texts. Writing and reading are closely linked and we ensure that through whole class reading, children are reading daily in order to build on their knowledge of different genres of writing and develop their vocabulary. 

Each unit of writing will consist of learning done over a 3-week learning journey and will be done through 1-hour lessons from Monday to Friday.  This is in order to ensure that the build-up of knowledge and skills is progressive and clear. Although the pedagogical process is detailed for each lesson, teachers have the professional scope to make adjustments where they think they are needed. This being said, there is an expectation that each stage of the learning process takes place and is evident through books, learning environment and planning. Leaning journeys can be based on texts, videos, real life events, images or lyrics from a song (anything that might get the children excited about writing).

The Writing Learning Journey Process

1)  Hook an activity to get the children engaged in the subject

2) New vocabulary of the learning journey (6 words per learning journey)

3) Introduction to text type through WAGOLL (what a good one looks like)  - Looking at features within the genre including which writing tools are best suited and why with focus on purpose – this shows the children the expectation of what they themselves are aiming for by the end of their unit of work.

4) Boxing Criteria This is designed to give the pupil a clear understanding of the purpose of their writing and audience and help them decide the writing tools.

5) First Skill of the learning jouney  This is  related to the National Curriculum and should be referred to as ‘Writing Tools’.

6) Second skill of the learning journey

7) Consolidation of Skills - a short writing task  to consolidate use of  the two taught skills

8)  Re-writing a WABOLL (what a bad one looks like) KS2 Children are given the opportunity to re-write an example of the end piece which is not to a high standard

9) Planning stage - Children to plan their piece of writing based on the stimulus.

10) First Draft

11) Edit and improve using the annotation, flaps , or a footnote system

12) Final draft with continuous improvements - this completed at the end of each unit and must include all the edits and improvements that have been made during these sessions. This should be done each child’s My Wonderful WAGOLL books 

13) Post consolidation lesson – After assessment of the learning during the learning journey, a follow-up lesson should be done which addresses any skills that have not been fully embedded.

Halton ensures that children are aware of their strengths and areas for development in writing so that learners can take ownership of their progress. Teachers leave next steps in books when marking to ensure that children know exactly what they need to do next to make progress in their writing and children are encouraged to respond to this in green pen. Pupils are encouraged to use talk partners, to peer mark and also peer review their work.  We ensure that ALL learners are given next steps and that scaffolds and challenges are put in place for those children working below or above age-related outcomes.

A high standard of joined, cursive handwriting is modelled across school and children are encouraged to imitate this. Handwriting is taught and practised regularly but is expected to be evidenced throughout all work produced.

Impact:

The impact on our children is clear: progress, sustained learning and transferrable skills.  Children are becoming more confident writers and are developing a love for writing for different purposes. By the time they are in upper Key Stage 2, most genres of writing are familiar to them and the teaching can focus on creativity, writer’s craft, sustained writing and manipulation of grammar and punctuation skills.

The teachers use formative and summative assessment to ensure children are making progress from their starting points. Summative assessments are made termly against  writing objectives taken from the National Curriculum programmes of study for each Year Group.

We monitor progress very closely to quickly and efficiently identify and support children not making progress.  Children are involved in their own assessement: as they produce writing, they help to select relevant success criteria that will challenge their learning.  

As all aspects of English are an integral part of the curriculum, cross curricular writing standards have also improved and skills taught in the English lesson are transferred into other subjects; this demonstrates consolidation of skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific grammar, punctuation and grammar objectives.