Kirkburton CE First School

English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others, and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.

New National Curriculum 2014

At Kirkburton, we aim to ensure that all pupils: 

• become confident and fluent writers, able to produce writing in a wide range of styles in subjects across the curriculum.  Our topics are planned to inspire pupils' enquiry  and stimulate their imagination.

• develop transcription and composition skills in order to have the stamina and ability to write at the age expected standard.

• use a wide range of high-quality texts to inspire the children's interest and widen their knowledge of author and genre.  

• are provided with rich and varied reasons to write – promoting the use of exciting vocabulary and offering opportunities to write in a wide range of styles, across different subjects and for different audiences.

• take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and adapt their language and style for a range of contexts.

• are immersed in the writing process; and given time to talk, draft, edit and improve.

Organisation and Planning

Writing at Kirkburton First School is taught according to the year group guidance as part of the 2014 National Curriculum.

The programmes of study for writing at key stages 1 and 2 are constructed similarly to those for reading:

transcription (spelling and handwriting)

composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing).

It is essential that teaching develops pupils’ competence in these two dimensions. In addition, pupils should be taught how to plan, revise and evaluate their writing.

New National Curriculum 2014

The teaching of English and writing is timetabled daily in every class. High quality texts from a wide range of genres are used to motivate children’s own writing. Lessons with a writing focus may include:

• Having a clear purpose and context for outcomes where appropriate;

• Exploring and investigating vocabulary through high quality texts as models;

• Building on, deepening the understanding of and applying key grammatical concepts through discrete    grammar and skills lessons;

• Promoting the ‘art’ and process of writing: drafting, redrafting and editing

• Allowing the children to see adults as writers, through effective modelling and ‘thinking out loud’

• Giving the children an audience for their writing

• Providing all children, no matter their ability, with 1:1 feedback and guidance for final written outcomes.

Discrete English lessons are taught daily. Units of English/writing planning begin by sharing good examples of the text type. These will be modelled with the children so that their own writing is based around their knowledge of ‘WAGOLL’.

Daily phonics lessons are taught in Reception and KS1 using the new Little Wandles scheme. Phonics interventions and reading sessions taught into years 3 and 4 as part of catch up curriculum. Phonics teaching is streamed by ability. All resources are matched to the correct phase of learning

Spelling is taught and timetabled discretely in KS2 in order to achieve sufficient depth. Spelling objectives are used in line with the Pyramid Spelling scheme from Year 3 upwards. This runs alongside our school Spelling Bee programme which begins in KS1. Spelling lists 1 and 2 are the statutory words to be learned by the end of Year 2.

GPS skills and knowledge are woven into teachers’ planning for writing in order to allow children to apply the skills they have learned into specific text types.

Handwriting lessons are discretely timetabled. The Nelson scheme is followed from Reception through to year 5.

Immersion of writing in class topics is a key strength, as a tool to develop children’s desire to write about a focus from their humanities or science curriculum - teachers planning reflects this.

Cross Curricular Links

Reading and writing are the fundamentals of all learning so we ensure that cross-curricular links with topic work are woven into every aspect of our programme of study.

• There are many reasons to write across the curriculum and teachers at Kirkburton First School make these natural links where necessary and appropriate to focus on the desired learning objective. Opportunities for cross-curricular writing are routinely planned for.
• Teachers may focus on report writing and explanatory writing in Science. Diary and recount writing would be taught through History.
• Teachers’  planning for English and Writing makes strong links to the Humanities curriculum, providing exciting opportunities for children to research and gather information, before they embark on writing projects of their own.

Examples of links are as follows:

• Persuasive writing based on learning about the Rainforest and conservation
• Diary writing based on a unit of work about Shackleton and his inspirational story as a Victorian explorer
• Eye witness accounts and Non chronological reports based on work about the Titanic
• Real life letter writing, linked to conservation work and learning about the life of David Attenborough
• Emotive diaries/journals of soldiers, based on earning about the conditions I the trenches in WW1
• Narrative and story work based on learning about the Tudors in history.

This needs to detail: what teaching in the subject looks like; the topics covered; the skills to be taught in each year group; photographs of lessons and any evidence of trips/visitors etc.