Burnham-on-Sea Infant School

Writing Curriculum Overview

Curriculum Lead: Nic Blain

Our curriculum approach to writing reflects our ethos statement ‘Working Together Building Futures’ providing all our children rich opportunities to be immersed in quality language rich literature.

Intent (curriculum design, coverage and appropriateness) :

Writing is a crucial part of our curriculum. The aims of our Literacy (writing) curriculum are to develop pupils who:

• Have a love of writing
• Acquire the knowledge and skills to write well for a range of purposes and audiences, having developed an awareness of the audience, purpose and context.
• Have an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar.
• To be enthusiastic, independent and lively writers.

As spoken language underpins the development of  writing, we aim to foster exploratory talk and good listening skills. Drama and role-play is regularly used in lessons to encourage creativity in writing. Application of key literacy skills are re-enforced across all foundation subjects.

Implementation (curriculum delivery, teaching and assessment):

We use the 'Literacy Counts',  'Read to Write' approach to teach writing for our pupils.

'Read to Write'  provides high-quality teaching of writing through children’s high-quality literature (Vehicle Texts). The units of work centre on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts, with a wealth of writing opportunities.

Each writing unit is taught through a sequence of lessons based on a good quality model text. Children will spend the first part of the sequence immersed in the story and engaging with the themes. They will then explore the features and elements that have created the effects before using these ideas in their own independent versions. We aim to give all of our writing opportunities both context and purpose so children can develop the skills to become confident, articulate writers. The development of speech and a varied vocabulary is a key life skill. Competence in English enables children to communicate effectively at home, at school and in the wider world and leads to improved life opportunities. Through our assemblies and year group performances, our children are encouraged to speak and perform in front of an audience and so develop their confidence, clarity and fluency.

Impact (attainment and progress):

• Children are confident, articulate verbal and written communicators.
• Children are adventurous with vocabulary choices.
• Children make at least good progress.
• Children are enthusiastic writers and produce good quality extended writing.
• Children are proud of their writing.
• Children will use their written knowledge and skills in all curriculum areas.

The Writing lead at Burnham-on-Sea will;

• Help design the rolling curriculum map and then to monitor to ensure that units are being taught at the correct time.
• Complete learning walks, speak to pupils about their learning and discuss with colleagues successes and barriers.
• Available to offer subject knowledge and advice when needed to support teaching staff in their understanding and delivery of writing.
• Engage in CPD and best practice afforded through The English Hub and Somerset Literacy Network.

Review:

October 2023