Writing

At Middle Barton School we use Literacy Counts (Ready Steady Write). 

Intent 

We cultivate a love of Writing and communicating through vocabulary rich and high quality literature, using Ready Steady Write by Literacy Counts. By inspiring and developing an appreciation of our rich and varied literary heritage and providing meaningful and exciting

The writing curriculum is designed to provide a broad and balanced education that meets the needs of all children. It provides opportunities for children to develop as independent, confident and successful writers, with high aspirations, who know how to make a positive contribution to their community and the wider society.

Our intent is for all pupils – irrespective of their needs, abilities or background – to learn to write fluently, developing their own writer’s voice.  We aim to meet, and where possible exceed, the expectations laid out in the Early Learning Goals and National Curriculum, with pupils progressing appropriately across school. We recognise that spoken language underpins the development of Writing. The quality of language that pupils hear and speak is vital for developing their vocabulary and grammar and their understanding Writing.  We believe that children need to develop a secure knowledge-base in Literacy, which follows a clear pathway of progression as they advance through the primary curriculum. We believe that a secure basis in literacy skills is crucial to a high quality education and will give our children the tools they need to participate fully as a member of society.

Implementation

Organisation and Curriculum Coverage 

Ready Steady Write empowers teachers to provide high-quality teaching of writing through high-quality literature. These detailed units of work centre on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts, with a wealth of writing opportunities within and across the curriculum. They provide: 

• Clear sequential Episodes of Learning 
• Vocabulary learning and contextualised spelling, grammar and punctuation 
• Wider reading for the wider curriculum 
• Example Texts linked to writing outcomes 
• A wealth of supporting resource 

Our English curriculum is developed around a sequence of high quality age-appropriate texts, using Literacy Count’s Ready Steady Write units of learning. We use each book to create opportunities to: 

• develop grammar and punctuation knowledge and understanding to use and apply across the wider curriculum, through sentence accuracy sessions; 
• explore the Writing structure and features of different genres, identifying the purpose and audience; 
• plan and write an initial piece of Writing with a clear context and purpose before evaluating the effectiveness of Writing by editing and redrafting. 

Building on this foundation, we teach literacy using a range of strategies which include: 

• Group Discussion – Children discuss and interrogate new ideas in a small group or whole class setting. They listen to and value each other’s ideas whilst taking on board feedback so as to improve their own explanations. 
• Partner Talk – Children work in partners to discuss their ideas. They are able to explain their ideas about texts they have read and prepare their ideas before they write. 
• • Questioning – Teachers use a range of questioning strategies to establish children’s current understanding and develop their learning. 
• Modelled Writing – Teachers model Writing and editing to demonstrate the high expectations they have. They verbally ‘think aloud’ in order to make the Writing process explicit and provide a rich and varied vocabulary for the children to utilise in their own work. This happens daily, through sentence accuracy
• Shared Writing – Teachers use the ideas from the children to create shared pieces of Writing. This enables the children to see the Writing process in action as well as having pride and ownership over the finished piece. 
• Editing – All children are signposted to regular opportunities for reviewing and editing their own and the work of others. 
• Working walls – Teachers and children regularly update working walls to ensure learning is documented within a unit of work. 

Class teachers ensure that the Writing process is clearly evident on working walls, with modelled examples being available to all pupils as the sequence of lessons develops. 

Impact

Assessment 

Teachers draw upon observations and continuous assessment to ensure children are stretched and challenged and to identify those children who may need additional support. Formative assessment of Writing is completed through teachers’ daily feedback to inform future planning. Teachers use the children’s everyday writing and adapt models and input to meet their current needs.  Teachers also complete a Reflecting on Unit outcomes document after each half termly unit, to identify next steps and the subsequent units are amended to include these focuses.  Daily sentence accuracy work is carefully monitored to ensure children are constructing sentences both coherently and accurately.  Termly staff meetings allow for whole school moderation of writing to deepen understanding of standards. 

Subject leaders will analyse termly data and address areas for curriculum development. Children’s attainment, progress and barriers to learning will be discussed in termly Pupil Progress Meetings with senior leaders and clear actions to work on will be planned together, to support pupils and staff in closing gaps. 

Writing is tracked and monitored in various ways. Written work can be marked following the feedback policy,  whole class and verbal feedback is used frequently throughout lessons. Teachers summatively assess the children three times a year using Bromcom  to submit the data. End of Key Stage 2 writing is assessed using Teacher Assessment and this is then submitted to the County and the DfE.