Writing

We believe that strong writing skills are crucial to all areas of the curriculum and equip the children with the skills and knowledge to succeed in future learning and employment. Our writing curriculum has been carefully planned and sequenced to meet the National Curriculum requirements. We ensure that children are writing for a range of different purposes and audiences ensuring breadth and ambition of study.

As early writers, children are taught how to form letters of the correct size and orientation so they can construct words and simple sentences. This is taught through both phonics (encoding) and in English lessons. Opportunities to write for a purpose are incorporated throughout the taught curriculum and during child-initiated learning in EYFS.

Across the school we incorporate the Talk for Writing approach which places high-quality children’s books at the heart of all learning and is based on the principles of how children learn. It enables children to imitate the language they need orally, before reading and analysing high-quality models, and then writing their own version. This emphasises the need for explicit teacher modelling, shared construction and ongoing editing and improving. At St Augustine’s scaffolding is key for developing our writers, and when introducing more complex writing tasks. Teachers gradually withdraw scaffolding so that children can write independently and confidently for a range of purpose, form and audience.  Throughout a sequence of learning, children’s writing is formatively assessed through a blend of 1:1 pupil conferencing, peer and self-assessment using the co-constructed success criteria and whole-class review and feedback.

We have carefully selected texts to reflect the context and needs of our pupils at St Augustine’s Primary. The units are planned to develop children’s knowledge and skills sequentially in order to write for a range of purposes, audiences and forms with a core text or stimulus as the launchpad. Where appropriate, selected texts are linked to other areas of the curriculum. This approach allows us to expose pupils to the very best in children’s literature, which feeds into developing a love for reading and an awareness of high-quality literature.

Handwriting

Children at St Augustine’s receive daily Handwriting input following the Collins Treasure House Handwriting Scheme. We teach our children to develop a fluent cursive handwriting style write so that cursive handwriting becomes automated by the end of year 6. Teachers use cursive handwriting when modelling any writing and this handwriting is also displayed across the school. In EYFS and Key Stage 1, the focus is on developing correct letter formation and simple joins. In Key Stage 2, there is more emphasis on fluency and developing a cursive handwriting style.