St Peter’s of Eaton Square C of E Primary School

Writing Curriculum Overview

Intent

At St Peter’s we recognise and emphasise the importance that writing has in unlocking the academic curriculum and all other future successes. We aim to promote high standards of literacy that equip all children with a strong command of the spoken and written word. We know this will help children to reach their full potential. We intend to provide all our children with the skills needed to effectively write and share their ideas and emotions. We prepare children for their future educational journey and their working lives by providing them with opportunities to write for a range of purposes, audiences and formalities, which in addition allows them to apply and develop their writing skills across the curriculum. Our writing curriculum aims to develop a love and appreciation of our rich literary heritage and invaluable cultural capital through exposure to diverse, relevant, quality texts.

Implementation

Writing at St Peter’s is taught using a Talk for Writing approach, which develops confidence, knowledge and independence. The main principles are the imitation, innovation and invention phases. This supports children in developing the skills needed to be thoughtful readers and creative writers for a range of purposes (to entertain, inform, persuade and discuss). Through this multi-sensory and interactive approach, children learn to write for a range of story/ text types using a range of methods including:

• listening to and learning texts and stories;
  drawing and story mapping;
  collecting words and language strategies to develop vocabulary;

• building their working knowledge of grammar.
• Elements of grammar, punctuation and spelling will be integrated into the units of learning that children will be undertaking, and spelling is taught discreetly, following the National Curriculum spelling objectives in KS2.

The Talk for Writing approach enables children to read and write independently for a variety of audiences and purposes within different subjects. A key feature is that children internalise the language structures needed to write through ‘talking the text’, as well as close reading. 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.

Impact

Children at St Peter’s will be able to express their opinions and write in a structured, technically accurate way. They will be confident to experiment with their writing across a range of genres and curriculum areas, ready to continue to expand their experiences of writing as they move through the key stages and onto secondary school. Children at St Peter’s will leave our school as literate, well-prepared individuals with an excellent command of spoken and written English.