Writing

Intent

At Lace Hill Academy, the teaching of reading and writing is a high priority. We want to promote high standards of language and literacy, whilst also developing a love of reading and writing. 

The writing curriculum is clearly designed and sequenced to develop substantive knowledge (arrows pointing towards the star).  We want pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary; a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time in primary school. We want them to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. We believe that all pupils should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, in part by developing a good, joined, handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school. A clear, fluent and taught handwriting style is essential in developing early writing fluency.

These are the four central substantive concepts:

• Spelling
• Handwriting (taught through the Kinetic Letters approach)
• Composition
• Grammar, vocabulary and punctuation

Disciplinary knowledge (points in the star) is also taught throughout our writing curriculum.  This knowledge teaches children to know how to use their writing skills to impact the reader, thus becoming real authors understanding how to write for purpose.

• Developing Vocabulary
• Editing and Improving
• Writing for purpose
• Forming Letters Correctly
• Spelling accurately
• Punctuating
• Organising Writing
• Writing Sentences

By teaching these skills,  our children will be able to achieve the writing golden intent below (also shown in the golden tail).

• I am a self-motivated writer
• I can adapt my writing for a range of different purposes and audiences.
• I can use wide and varied vocabulary to achieve varied effects in my writing.
• I can apply my knowledge of phonics and spelling patterns to help me spell new words
• I understand the foundations of grammar and apply it effectively to my writing I can punctuate my writing effectively to aid understanding.
• I can organise my ideas to develop cohesion in my writing.
• I take pride in my presentation of my writing and I have developed a legible, joined, increasingly efficient handwriting style.
• I can develop my writing through drafting, editing and improving my work

Implementation

Writing is widely promoted and celebrated within our school curriculum. We pride ourselves on our learning environment to support the children’s progress. Writing units of work, which span across fiction, non–fiction and poetry, are carefully sequenced and aligned to help children make learning connections. We use a range of high standard model texts to ensure our curriculum is aspirational for our children. Classrooms are resourced with dictionaries and thesauruses to support learning. 

Parents are supportive of our writing curriculum and are keen for their children to develop skills in written communication.

We have designed our curriculum so that all of our children are exposed to a diverse range of texts which promote our SMSC, school and British values. We use texts with a broad range of characters/backgrounds as well as  historical settings, modern day settings and fictitious settings.

At Lace Hill Academy we follow a primary approach called Talk for Writing to support teaching and learning in writing. Talk for Writing is an approach to teaching and developing children as accomplished writers. Established by Pie Corbett and supported by Julia Strong, Talk for Writing enables children to imitate the key language they need for a particular topic orally before they try reading and analysing it. Through fun activities that help them rehearse the tune of the language they need, followed by shared writing to show them how to craft their writing, children are helped to write in the same style as the focus text, developing confidence and a passion for writing.  The approach moves from dependence towards independence, with the teacher using shared and guided teaching to develop the ability in children to write creatively and powerfully. 



Click the link below to view our whole school plan for writing including key focus texts and text types:

Fiction at Lace Hill Academy

Writing to Entertain

The children encounter seven generic story plots throughout the writing curriculum: 

Defeat the Monster Story – A defeat the monster story tells the tale of a main character who is confronted by a monster wo causes problems and is hard to defeat. Eventually the main character is able to defeat the monster and all is well.

Tale of Fear:  A fear narrative tells the story of a main character who has to face his/her fears and overcome it.

Journey Tale: A journey story tells the story of a main character who goes on a journey and has to overcome a number of problems before the journey ends.

Warning Story: A warning story tells the story of a character who is given a warning about a danger, yet ignores the warning which causes a problem. The character has to resolve the situation for a happy ending.

Portal Story: A portal story is where a main character enters into a new place or world through a portal that they find. Here they encounter problems which they have to overcome in order to get back safely.

Wishing Tale: A wishing tale is a story where the main character wants somethings badly, yet when trying to get it, comes into difficulties. By overcoming these difficulties, the main character gets what they want.

Character Flaw: A character flaw story tells the story of a main character who needs to change part of his/her character as they are always getting into trouble. By changing their ways, everything ends well.

Non-Fiction at Lace Hill Academy

Children learn to...

Write to persuade:  Writing to convince the reader that what they are saying is true.

Write to discuss: Writing different points of view on an issue, providing balanced arguments for and against.

Write to recount:  Writing in chronological order about an event that has happened.

Write to inform: Giving the reader information about a chosen topic.

Write to instruct: Writing a set of instructions explaining how to carry out/complete a task.

Write to explain:  Writing an explanation so that the reader understands how or why something is done.

Poetry

Children encounter a wide variety of poem structures through their fiction units.