Writing - 'Becoming Authors' 

"I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in."

Robert Louis Stevenson

Writing at Ghost Hill Infant and Nursery School

Intent:

At Ghost Hill we aim to nurture a love of writing for all our children. We encourage independent writers from when the children first start with us in Nursery. We ensure we build confident writers through uncapped opportunities where children are excited to high use their imaginations and all writing is celebrated, both within English lessons and during continuous provision.

We inspire our young writers through the use of quality texts which aim to build children's skill in writing across different genres. Children at Ghost Hill develop resourcefulness and access texts in a wide variety of ways across the whole curriculum.

By the age of 7 (Year 2), we aim that all children at Ghost Hill can:

• read fluently for their age and with good understanding.
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of age-appropriate grammar and knowledge for reading, writing and spoken language.
• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas and reflect on the effectiveness of the choices they have made in an age-appropriate way.

Implementation:

In EYFS (Nursery and Reception), teachers use The Write Stuff texts as starting points for units of work.  This is based on using high quality texts and creative teaching approaches. This approach aims to engage and motivate children in their very first stages of literacy learning.

In Reception, Year 1 and 2, our approach to writing is supported by Jane Considine ‘The Write Stuff’ method, as the starting point for most units of work.  This is based on two guiding principles; teaching sequences that slide between experience days and sentence stacking lessons. Modelling is at the heart of all teaching. Sentence stacking lessons are broken into bite-sized chunks and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing. Teachers prepare children for writing by modelling the ideas, grammar or techniques of writing. 

Sentence stacking lessons are broken into bite-sized chunks and taught under the structural framework of The Writing Rainbow. Teachers prepare children for writing by modelling the ideas, grammar or techniques of writing.

●  Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence.

●  Model section – the teacher close models a sentence that outlines clear writing features and techniques.

●  Enable section – the children write their sentence, following the model.

Spelling, Grammar and Handwriting

At Ghost Hill, we firmly believe that good spelling is an essential skill that allows the children to communicate their understanding in all curriculum subjects. In order that pupils develop into effective and confident writers, they need to develop and use a range of effective spelling strategies. By providing children with a range of strategies, we equip them with the independence to attempt spellings before asking for adult help. We particularly want our children to develop a love of language and the confidence to spell more challenging and ambitious words. By giving them the opportunity to develop a rich and exciting vocabulary, we are enabling them to become effective communicators.

To ensure that all children reach their potential in spelling and grammar we will:

• Provide regular spelling sessions linked to the age-specific spelling programme set out in the National Curriculum 2014 and also supported through our SSP programme Little Wandle
• Ensure that our learning environment is rich with language;
• Provide grammar-focused teaching objectives within our planning as recommended by the subject leader and by the 2014 National Curriculum
• Using Little Wandle letter formation mantras  (Reception & Year 1) and extension and embedding work for Handwriting sequence in Year 2. Teachers will develop children’s ability to write in a legible, style at an appropriate pace and in line with the National Curriculum 2014, through regular practice and by promoting pride in presentation.

Impact:

Assessment:

• Assessment will be undertaken in line with the school and Trust’s assessment timetable.
• Children will be assessed in line with age related expectations set out in the assessment documents of the 2014 National Curriculum.
• Termly in-house moderation takes place and writing is marked against our termly ‘expected standards’ for KS1
• Regular independent writes will be undertaken to monitor progress throughout the school year. These pieces of work will be used by class teachers to assess children’s progress and ability.

Moderation: Staff take part in Trust wide moderation, in Primary Network Meetings, to ensure that teacher judgements are scrutinised and accurate.