Writing
Subject Lead: Mrs Bradshaw
At St. Joseph’s, we provide a purposeful, progressive, and empowering curriculum for every child. We celebrate diversity and nurture curiosity through engaging learning experiences. Rooted in a love of literature, faith, Gospel values, and British values, our unique curriculum drivers shape everything we do. They help children understand their place in their community and the wider world, build meaningful experiences, and inspire them to achieve their best, knowing endless possibilities await beyond school.
Intent
At St. Joseph’s we intend for children to:
- develop a love for writing as a lifelong means for communication and expression
- write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting language and style for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
- value and explore diverse literature
Implementation
At St. Joseph’s, we follow the English National Curriculum when teaching writing. To ensure progress across the school we have our Writing Progression of Skills document which documents progression in; writing composition, oracy and vocabulary, grammar and punctuation, handwriting and presentation.
The flow chart below outlines the teaching sequence when teaching a different genre of writing. This sequence may take up to two weeks to implement, depending on the age of the children and the genre being studied.
This teaching sequence begins with a hook, this is to engage children’s imagination and interest using a variety of stimuli.
A high-quality text is then introduced, ranging from picture books to Shakespeare, and books linked to other curriculum areas.
A WAGOLL (What A Good One Looks Like) is provided to guide children in their extended writing for a specific genre. Since writing can take many directions, a WAGOLL sets a clear end goal. Seeing a strong example helps pupils assess whether they have included the required features in their own work. At this stage, they also review the genre’s success criteria, which follow a progressive framework across all writing genres taught in school. The teaching focus then moves to studying the structure and features of the chosen genre. In all year groups, children study a variety of genres, these are;
- Recounts
- Newspaper Reports
- A range of story types
- Balanced Argument
- Biography
- Instructions
- Letters
- Non-chronological report
- Persuasive writing
- Poetry
We encourage children to always take pride in their writing and to respect their books. The teaching of handwriting is progressive across school and is supported by www.letterjoin.co.uk.
The National Curriculum spelling statutory requirements are taught using Spelling Shed activities to ensure consistency across the school.