A member of Dales Academies Trust
Writing Curriculum Statement
At Carnagill School, our curriculum is built around the attitudes and values of independence, curiosity, aspiration, commitment, kindness, and pride. Our school motto of ‘Inspiring Bright Futures Together’ demonstrates our commitment to developing the whole child so that they can succeed in life. Mental health and well-being are a key driver in restoring our school community after the disruption of the pandemic.
At Carnagill School, the curriculum we offer is based around the four key principles of:
We underpin all of this with:
Context
Within our unique school community, children’s experiences can be very varied. Many of our pupils from military families may have experienced multiple mid-year moves, which often result in significant gaps in the teaching of writing, due to various aspects of the curriculum being taught at various times in different schools. Any negative parental experiences of learning to write can also impact on children’s attitudes to the subject and their pre-school experiences. Many children arrive in EYFS lacking the vocabulary for their age and lacking the rich experiences of nursery thymes and story sharing. A key priority is to develop this basic vocabulary and expose them to a story-rich rich environment, which enables and supports their purposeful and imaginative play.
At Carnagill, we wish to create life-long learners through a curriculum which is accessible to all and that will maximise the outcomes for every child. We believe that English underpins every area of the wider curriculum; enabling our pupils to access the knowledge they need and give the ability to communicate this effectively. Because of this, we have designed a text-led curriculum, where high-quality engaging texts open the door to other times, cultures, and experiences, which can be limited due to the often-insular nature of military life. We seek to overcome these barriers and support children to develop writing as the means through which to express their voice.
We aim to develop children’s ability to produce well-structured, detailed writing in which the meaning is made clear, and which engages the interest of the audience / reader. Particular attention is paid throughout the school to the formal structures of English: grammatical detail, punctuation, and spelling. Teachers clearly model writing skills and document the learning journey through consistent working walls; guided writing sessions are used to target specific needs of both groups and individuals. Children have opportunities to write at length, in extended, independent writing sessions at the end of a unit of work – applying their taught skills to an unsupported piece of writing. Early Years and Key Stage 1 follow the Read, Write Inc Programme that allows the pupils to develop their writing skills in a structured routine in small groups. In Key Stage 2, we teach writing through a text-based approach, which allows us to meet the needs of the children – through choosing a text that will engage, inspire, and motivate.
Pupils are taught discrete punctuation and grammar skills, appropriate to their year group, within our text-based approach to planning, allowing opportunities to identify, practice and consolidate grammatical understanding, whilst also being immersed in a text. Children then apply the grammar and punctuation skills that they have learnt in their extended pieces of writing.
Spelling is taught regularly in focused sessions within each class. Learning to recognise the high frequency words on sight is crucial in developing fluency and accuracy in reading and then writing. High frequency words are the words that appear most often in printed materials. Some of the high frequency words are referred to as ‘tricky words,’ as the children are unable to use their phonic knowledge to decode every part of the word. Once children are confident in reading and spelling high frequency words, they are taught spelling rules and are encouraged to apply these rules in their writing.
Class teachers use the Read, Write Inc and Language and Literacy programme to support with the teaching of the different spelling rules and this can then often be used as homework for children when applicable.
Intent
We want children to:
- Develop independence in their speaking and writing, making choices about their vocabulary, form and style according to their chosen purpose and audience, and to create the effect they want; to become independent in their reading – decoding and blending until they can read whatever they chose; able to select reading material that excites them or provides the information they seek.
- Demonstrate pride in their learning in English, through consistent and careful presentation– excited to share their skills and products whether in writing or orally.
- Be curious about what they hear and read – a starting point for the development of knowledge and the application of skills.
- To show commitment to their learning and build resilience and stamina; able to persevere, whether through a challenging text or an extended piece of writing.
- Demonstrate kindness when discussing and sharing ideas, building on the work of others, and challenging sensitively when in opposition. Be kind when giving feedback to peers, providing support and challenge to a partner or group, helping everyone succeed.
- Take inspiration from their reading and aspire: to see unfamiliar places, meet new people, create new worlds, do good and wonderful things – anything and everything they can imagine.
At Carnagill Primary School, we strive to help our children develop into articulate and imaginative communicators, who are well-equipped with the basic skills they need to become life-long learners; English learning is key in this. We aim to ensure all our children develop a genuine love of language and the written word, through a text-based approach. Careful links are made across the curriculum to ensure that children’s English learning is relevant and meaningful: where possible linking our reading, writing and the topic that we are covering in History and Geography. We ensure that children develop an understanding of how widely writing is used in everyday life and, therefore, how important, and useful the skills are that they are learning.
Our intentions in writing are for children to:
- Write for a purpose.
- See themselves as real writers.
- Take ownership of their writing
- See writing as an interesting and enjoyable process.
- Acquire the ability to organise and plan their written work.
Implementation
Children should learn to write so that they can form letters effectively and efficiently in a neat writing style; as well as having accurate spelling knowledge backed up by secure synthetic phonics. They should write with purpose, giving meaning to even early writing; learning to manipulate the form to suit their audience and have the vocabulary to convey their meaning. They should develop the grammar and punctuation knowledge to facilitate this. Finally, and most importantly, they should become authors – able to make choices about vocabulary, sentences, ways of presenting – consciously making those choices that will affect how their reader responds to their writing.
Key features of our implementation are as follows:
– Quality of writing is a key focus across school and is displayed and celebrated.
– High-quality texts form the focus of all teaching in English in KS2, providing context and purpose to their writing as well as providing a scaffold from which to hang other knowledge (Literacy and Language and The Literary Curriculum).
– Key and text specific vocabulary is identified, discussed, and displayed; its use is modelled in shared writing and children are encouraged to use it in their independent writing.
– Grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary teaching is fully embedded in the teaching cycle for English.
– Writing is a focus across the wider curriculum, providing opportunity for the application of skills learned – with the same high standards – and time for this is given in the timetable
– Spelling and handwriting are taught discretely (or as part of RWI) and expectations in these basic skills are high and consistent throughout the curriculum areas.
Impact
– Children will:
– Be keen writers, showing pleasure and pride in their writing.
– Talk confidently about their writing, commenting on what they wrote, why they wrote it and how they did it.
– Use accurate grammar and spelling, and neat handwriting (appropriate to their age and stage) so that work can be easily read and understood.
– View writing as a method of communicating with the world around them.
– Make good progress from their KS1 results
– Be able to produce written work in all areas of the curriculum to a high standard
– Be confident to write for a range of different purposes.
