English

Writing

At Sennen School, writing is at the heart of our curriculum. All children from Foundation Stage to Year 6 benefit from using real life experiences and high quality texts to inspire their writing.  Our intention is for pupils to be confident, coherent, creative writers who love to write for a variety of purposes and across a range of genres.

We believe reading and writing are intrinsically linked and we combine the skills wherever possible. As well as having a wide vocabulary, we want the children to have a solid understanding of grammar and to be able to spell new words effectively by applying the spelling knowledge that they gain through their time with us.  We believe that all pupils should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, in part by developing a good, joined, handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school.

We place a strong emphasis on:

• Ensuring high quality pieces are modelled and created collaboratively.
• Actively learning ambitious and appropriate vocabulary which is genre specific.
• Writing for audiences to create a sense of purpose.
• Self and buddy checking work to support the editing process with a focus on spelling and vocabulary.
• Having the opportunity to refine, edit and publish writing.

Teachers must construct a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give all learners, particularly the most disadvantaged and those with SEND or high needs, the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.

With this in mind, at Sennen school we make it our priority to ensure all of our children’s needs are met in Writing. Every teacher knows their individual pupils, their needs, what is ambitious for each individual and what measures are in place to meet their goals.

In order to achieve this, teachers use a range of strategies:

1. High quality inclusive teaching for all
2. Use of high quality texts & WAGOLLs
3. Explicit teaching of vocabulary & writing skills
4. Resources
5. Interventions

High quality inclusive teaching for all

High quality, inclusive teaching ensures that planning and implementation meets the needs of all pupils, and builds in high expectations for all pupils, including those with SEND. It is about the day-to-day interactions that take place in the classroom and the different pedagogical approaches teachers use to engage, motivate learners which ensure good pupil progress. Additional intervention and support cannot compensate for a lack of good quality teaching.

• Focused lesson planning with clear objectives, identified according to needs of all pupils
• Teachers knowing their pupils well and understanding the implications of SEND on learning
• High levels of pupil involvement and engagement with their learning
• High levels of challenge and expectations
• Appropriate use of questioning, modelling and explaining (modelled & shared writing)
• An emphasis on learning through talk and discussion
• Pace of lessons adjusted to reflect how pupils are learning
• Teachers providing pupils with effective feedback on learning (and vice versa!)
• Pupils accepting responsibility for their own learning and work
• Teachers effectively deploy additional adult support towards improving learning and increasing independence (shared & independent writing)

Use of high quality texts & WAGOLLs

High quality texts are used to inspire & ignite enthusiasm.  Pupils are clear what is expected – use of ‘WAGOLL’ (what a good one looks like) examples are shared.  This could also include the teacher’s modelled writing so children are aware of what to aim for.

Explicit teaching of vocabulary & writing skills

Writing is examined using a WAGOLL & writing/ grammar skills are unpicked & explicitly taught in the build-up of a piece of writing. Genre specific/ tier 2 vocabulary is well chosen to suit the type of writing & is again taught. Children are encouraged to apply these independently/ collaboratively in their writing.

A mixture of modelled, guided & independent writing is used.

Resources

Some may be specific for the individual needs of the child; others may be more general which can be provided for much of the class to enhance overall learning.  These may include but are not exclusive to:

Writing ramps, vocabulary word banks, sound charts, spelling banks, talking tiles/ tins, paired tasks, adult support, etc.  The aim of these is to aid and build towards independence.

Interventions

Teachers know their children really well so use a variety of targeted interventions to meet the needs of all children. These are usually Teaching Assistant led.

Interventions may include: IDL, Colourful Semantics, Fresh Start (from Y5), etc.