Curriculum focus- Writing
Intent
The aim of our writing curriculum is to provide every child with the opportunity to become an accurate and fluent writer.
Being able to communicate in the modern world, through handwritten or typed text is as vital now as it has ever been. Children are given opportunities to write in a variety of different writing genres ranging from creative story writing to non-chronological reports. We ensure that children write for a variety of audiences and for a variety of purposes.
Implementation
We plan in 3 stages: long-term, medium-term and short-term. Our long-term planning follows the National Curriculum. Our medium-term planning is done on a half termly basis. This planning reflects the outcomes of regular assessment of the areas that have been taught and is adapted to the needs of the current cohort. Short term planning is completed for each week.
Our writing curriculum runs closely alongside our reading curriculum. Good phonological knowledge is a fundamental skill in spelling which is an integral part of writing. From the very beginning at Chilworth C of E Infant School, pupils are taught systematic synthetic phonics through our chosen scheme, Little Wandle. This provides the building blocks of letters through our daily phonics sessions. These sessions include segmenting and blending skills. Additionally, children are taught a series of high frequency tricky words as whole sight vocabulary.
To be able to write well is closely linked to spoken language and reading competence. Our writing curriculum is carefully planned to take into consideration a child’s reading ability and level of language acquisition. We work with a range of well selected and high-quality literacy texts to model to the children exciting and ambitious vocabulary and written text. This includes, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, rhymes plays and traditional tales.
Children’s writing is assessed on a half termly basis and enables the school to identity and offer additional support for those children in need of it. We work closely with ‘Specialist Teachers for Inclusive Practice’ who provide advice and support for those children for whom we are concerned.
Impact
Our children make good progress as they journey from Nursery to Year 2. Our end of Key Stage 1 results demonstrate we have a successful system of delivering writing as these results are consistently above national averages.
