Curriculum Lead: Clare Broad
Intent:
Building on children’s learning and skills in reading, we intend all children to be able to write confidently and clearly for a range of different purposes and audiences, across the curriculum. Being an author at BLC means that children will feel empowered to take risks with their writing and dare to use their imagination whilst utilising the technical skills of writing they have been taught.
Implementation:
Writing is taught daily as a discrete 60 minute lesson, as well as across all areas of the curriculum. In writing lessons, we use quality picture books as the stimuli for our curriculum. This allows children to graft and dig deeply into the different elements of our stories; we understand the importance of drama in helping children think carefully about characters and plot. Oral rehearsal is at the heart of our classrooms: we know that if children can read it, they can say it and if they can say it, they can write it! As a result, we use an approach to writing which has three distinct phases: reading for pleasure, reading like a writer and applying skills.
Reception – Writing Books
Year 1 – Writing Books
Year 2 – Writing Books
Year 3 – Writing Books
Year 4 – Writing Books
Year 5 – Writing Books
Year 6 – Writing Books
We encourage children to use what they have read to help them with the work; we also encourage children to innovate and invent their own ideas. Once they have written their work, using teacher models to support them, children are taught how to revise, edit and publish their work so that they grow resilient and learn how authors really write, have respect and take pride in their finished piece of work.
Grammar, handwriting and spelling are explicitly taught, in line with National Curriculum expectations.
| EYFS | KS1 | KS2 | |
| Handwriting / Fine Motor Skills | – Within RWI plus writing sessions daily | – Within RWI – 5 minutes daily – start of writing lesson |
– 5 minutes daily – start of writing lesson |
| Grammar | – Within writing sessions | – Within writing sessions – 30 minutes weekly grammar |
– Within writing – 30 minutes weekly grammar |
| Spelling | – Within RWI | – Within RWI | – 15 minutes RWI spelling daily |
Impact:
- Children will end each year meeting or exceeding national expectations for writing.
- Children will write in clear, joined handwriting with accurate spelling and grammar.
- Children will confidently write for a range of purposes and audiences, selecting the most appropriate vocabulary and structures to use.
- Children will edit, redraft and improve their writing with independence.
Writing Displays
Some examples of writing displays