Writing at Trinity

Becoming a writer is a process and it is every child’s entitlement to achieve this. Taking ownership of the written word can open up a world in which children can cultivate identity, an understanding of the world and their place in it in relation to others. To engage children in writing, they have to want to write, see the purpose in doing so and the opportunities it gives for them to have a voice.

To give children the best possible start to their writing journey we follow the Babcock Teaching Sequences. In addition to this, we offer children opportunities to write freely, developing their stamina for writing and creativity using interesting pictures, artefacts or videos as a stimulus. For reading and the teaching of phonics, we use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds and early writing forms part of this programme. Finally, we follow the Kinetic Letter programme to enable children to master fluent, legible handwriting that can be performed automatically, so that the attention of the brain is on the content of the writing.

Intent

At Trinity, we use an approach to writing based on Babcock’s Sequences of Learning. This helps to build upon the developmental building blocks of writing: vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure. Grammar is taught explicitly within lessons to help children develop knowledge and apply these skills within lessons. This is then strengthened through the process of pupils revisiting and reapplying their skills. We believe that writing skills underpin most elements of the school curriculum and is an essential life-skill. Considering the fundamental importance of writing in everyday life, we are driven by the need to develop each learner’s writing ability, thus enabling them to play a full part in society.

The sequences of learning have many other advantages including breaking the writing process down into manageable, explicitly taught chunks and providing pupils with opportunities to practise skills repeatedly – but in different contexts. There are also opportunities presented for extended writing pieces. The approach places emphasis on pupils’ understanding of the writing process, with planning and revision being key aspects that are explicitly taught, in order for pupils to use them independently. It is expected that children make simple edits to their work throughout their schooling, from making simple letter corrections in EYFS to editing longer pieces of work to improve in KS2.

Implementation

Every year group will experience writing daily. In foundation stage, the children will have access to writing opportunities in their provision, Little Wandle letters and sounds, Kinetic letters sessions and interventions. These are carefully planned and offer fine motor practice from the Kinetic Letters programme with progression from Nursery. From Year 1 onwards, the children will have a daily writing lesson which will include the grammar the children will be focusing on for their unit of work. It is imperative that sentence-level activities are covered in lessons to develop precision, understanding and application which will help pupils to develop an understanding of sentence boundaries and punctuation for use in both reading and writing.

In some lessons, children will learn how to develop their sentence structure (including writer’s craft and authorial choice). In others, they will learn how to organise and structure their writing. They will also have the opportunities to visit exemplar texts to explore effective pieces of writing and explore and enrich vocabulary. Children always have the opportunity to revisit and edit their work to refine word- and sentence-level skills, and to develop coherence within and across paragraphs.

Specific skills are developed in relation to fiction and non-fiction pieces of work. Each year group completes a fiction and non-fiction piece of writing each half term, with a piece of poetry included across the year. Children will work towards longer pieces of writing as the moved throughout the school, with the emphasis being on quality of skill application, rather than quantity.

Impact

Summative and formative assessments show achievement and progression at or above ARE across all pupil groups.

Writing is actively promoted and celebrated in all forms across the school.

Children view themselves as “public speakers, readers and writers.”

Children are rigorous and systematic in reviewing and editing their own writing.

Children can articulate preferences for genres and written styles.

We as a staff are committed to making sure that children are ready for the next stage of their education.