Writing

My heart overflows with a good theme; I address my verses to the King;
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

Psalm 45:1

We want all of our pupils to become confident, competent writers and develop their own writer’s voice. Writing gives children a way to communicate effectively with others: to share their thoughts, ideas, beliefs, emotions, cultural identity and express who they are. Through a text-rich writing curriculum, we will expose the children to new worlds, experiences and ideas, expanding their vocabulary and their horizons. The texts we use will both value and confirm who our pupils are and where they come from and introduce them to cultural and social contexts beyond those they are familiar with.

Our English curriculum is designed so that children will gain the skills they need to become accomplished writers, enabling them to express themselves clearly and confidently for a wide range of purposes. They will be provided with meaningful contexts and purposes for writing across the curriculum. As confident, competent writers, St Hilda’s pupils will have the power to make their own voices heard, to influence others and to change the world.

Aims

 Our aims are for all pupils at St Hilda’s to:

• Write with confidence, clarity and imagination;
• Understand and apply their knowledge of phonics and GPS;
• Understand how to write in a range of genres (including fiction, non-fiction and poetry), using the appropriate style, structure and features;
• Plan, draft, revise and edit their own work, and learn how to self- and peer-assess against a set of success criteria;
• Develop a technical vocabulary through which to understand and discuss their writing;
• Develop their imagination, creativity, expressive language and critical awareness through their writing.

We intend to develop, through our teaching of writing, the following attitudes:

• Curiosity and interest;
• Pleasure and thoughtfulness;
• Critical appraisal;
• Independence;
• Confidence;
• Perseverance;
• Imagination.

Our approach to writing is based on RAW (Reading, Analysis, Writing) which is an approach that supports pupils to make the link between quality reading and creative writing. It is embedded at every phase of the teaching sequence. We believe that our approach allows pupils to explore the processes involved in being a writer, and promotes oral rehearsal and development of high – quality stimuli to become confident, independent writers in a range of genres, across the curriculum.

What our children say about writing

I enjoy writing because it lets me use my imagination. Eva Y3

Writing is exciting because you can use descriptions to paint a picture in the readers mind. Frankie Y4

Sentence stacking helps me to improve my writing because I can use the lenses in my own work. I can tell that my writing sounds better when I think about the lenses. Isabella Y5

Writing allows us to have a voice and have the opportunity to share our opinions, entertain others, persuade, give facts and so much more. Seb Y6