Intent- Writing at Parkfield

"Description begins in the writer’s imagination but should finish in the reader’s." & "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot." Stephen King

English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society: pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.

 Intent- Writing at Parkfield

The overarching aim for English in the National Curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.

The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• 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
• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.

We intend for children to write effectively for a range of purposes and audiences; to select language that shows good awareness of the reader and to write coherently for entertainment or to inform.

Research to inform practice: Research review series: English Updated 15 July 2022: Since new key stage 1 assessments were introduced in 2016, the percentage of pupils reaching the expected standard for reading and writing has remained broadly stable for reading, with an upward trend for writing. In the 2019 key stage 2 national tests, 73% of pupils reached the expected standard in the reading test. However, put another way, over 1 in 4 pupils moved to secondary school having not met the expected standard of the test. This carries implications for their learning both in English and more widely across the secondary curriculum. Pie Corbett: Creating Story Tellers & Writers, Alan Peat, EEF 2021.

Implementation

EYFS

Our writing programme of study begins in EYFS. The EYFS framework is structured very differently to the National Curriculum as it is organised across seven areas of learning rather than subject areas.  The most relevant Early Years outcomes for writing are taken from: writing, fine motor skills, speaking & being imaginative and expressive, where children work towards their Early Learning Goals, which are the prerequisite skills for writing within the National Curriculum.

There is a strong focus on the characteristics of effective learning which includes Playing and Exploring, Active Learning and Creating and Thinking Critically. Children are encouraged to write recognisable letters - most of which are correctly formed, spell words by identifying sounds in them and representing the sounds with a letter or letters and write simple phrases and sentences that can be read by others. While speaking, they should be able to offer explanations for why things might happen, making use of recently introduced vocabulary from stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems when appropriate. Express their ideas and feelings about their experiences using full sentences, including use of past, present and future tenses and making use of conjunctions, with modelling and support from their teacher. While being imaginative and expressive they should be able to invent, adapt and recount narratives and stories with peers and their teacher.

Key Stage 1 and 2

Our writing curriculum in Key Stage 1 and 2 fundamentally covers the statutory learning objectives outlined in the Primary National Curriculum. It secures the knowledge needed for successful writing: knowledge about the topic and knowledge about how to write. Pupils write frequently, for a range of audiences and purposes (once they have sufficient accuracy and automaticity in transcription).

The programmes of study for writing at Key Stages 1 and 2 are:

• transcription (spelling and handwriting)
• composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing).

It is essential that teaching develops pupils’ competence in these two dimensions. Writing down ideas fluently, depends on effective transcription: that is, on spelling quickly and accurately through knowing the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics) and understanding the morphology (word structure) and orthography (spelling structure) of words (transcription). Pupils’ accuracy and automaticity in transcription are developed early on and secured by lower key stage 2, so that older pupils are able to pay attention to the higher-level processes of composing, planning, writing and revision.

Effective composition involves forming, articulating and communicating ideas and then organising them coherently for a reader. This requires clarity, awareness of the audience, purpose and context and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. Writing also depends on fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy handwriting.

At Parkfield, we put great emphasis on developing pupils’ vocabulary through the use of class texts and WAGOLLS, which ultimately leads to conversations about relationships between words, how to understand nuances in meaning and how to develop their understanding of, and ability to use, figurative language. Furthermore, as part of our grammar curriculum, pupils will be taught to control their writing consciously and to use Standard English.

Our curriculum ensures that pupils have mastered all the different components (key knowledge) required for complex composites (written outcomes). In English, this includes fluency in key practices through repeated repetition, overlearning and memorising key knowledge, e.g. Year 5 & 6 learn how to use a wide range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs, which is built from:

Year 4: fronted adverbials

Year 3: understand the use of conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause

Year 2: understand subordination (when, if, that or because) and co-ordination (using or, and, or but)

Year 1: joining words and clauses using ‘and’

At Parkfield, we have developed our own approach to ‘how to teach writing’, which includes elements of both ‘Talk for Write’, ‘Alan Peat’ sentence types and the ‘Self-regulated strategy development approach (S Graham and D Perin: 2007 & S Graham, D McKeown, SA Kiuhara and K Harris: 2013). Children are taught genre-specific texts and follow this cycle below:

• Read the text and discuss language and composition,
• Learn new vocabulary (which they will use).
• Imitate (learning key component knowledge- SPaG)
• Reading as a reader- do they understand the text?
• Reading as a writer – do they understand the writing techniques that have been used and what the impact/effect it has on the reader?
• Innovate (practising/applying key component knowledge) where there are opportunities to edit and improve and respond to feedback

Planning and writing the independent application (invent) (outcome piece using knowledge about the topic and knowledge about how to write) in this stage, pupils will have an opportunity to edit and improve and then ‘publish’ in their Big Book of Knowledge.

The Self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is an approach to teaching writing strategies that has been found to be effective in helping pupils learn the specific knowledge about how to write, including knowledge about the genre of writing, linguistic and grammatical knowledge, and knowledge about how to carry out specific aspects of the writing process (S Graham and D Perin: 2007 & S Graham, D McKeown, SA Kiuhara and K Harris: 2013)   

‘Self-regulated strategy development involves:

• Pupils being taught the background knowledge they need to use a writing strategy effectively.
• The teacher explicitly describes and discusses the purpose and benefit of the strategy.
• The teacher models how to use the strategy.
• Pupils memorise the steps/components of the strategy.
• The teacher supports and scaffolds pupils’ mastery of the strategy.
• Pupils use the strategy independently.

Narrative Linear Threads

Throughout their time at Parkfield, children will become familiar with the following narrative linear threads: description, character, setting, dialogue and suspense. Within these threads, key components will be taught to reflect the focus. This enables the children to be taught a variety of different narrative themes, which include: Wishing, Warning, Finding, Losing, Journey, Meeting, Conquering the Monster, Rags to Riches, Tale of fear, Character flaw and Portal. The innovate becomes more challenging where they move away from simple substitution, to writing alternative ending, flashbacks, embellishment, sequels, prequels, write in the style of…. and blended story types as they move throughout the school. In addition to the linear threads above, we also have a fairy tale linear thread throughout EYFS- Year 5, where children initially substitute, moving onto alternative endings in Year 3, to mixed up fairy tales in Year 4, where they finally learn the blended fairy tale – Shrek - in Year 5.

Non-Fiction Linear Threads

Non-fiction is taught through genre specific texts. There are twelve different linear threads, which include: poster; information text; diary; instruction; recount; non-chronological report; explanation, biography, persuasion, newspaper article, discussion/balanced argument and review.

In Key Stage 1 there is a heavy focus on accuracy and automaticity in transcription, where children will learn new graphemes (letters that represent a sound), encoding (spelling) and handwriting skills. There are also spelling dictation tasks so children can practise using and applying knowledge taught without the element of composition. As children become more fluent in writing, they begin to develop positive attitudes towards and stamina for writing by: writing narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real and fictional); writing about real events; writing poetry and writing for different purposes. Children will focus on ‘writing to inform’ by learning the background knowledge across the curriculum and the key components of grammar to suit the audience and purpose. They will learn how to write letters, information books, instructions, recounts and non-chronological reports.

In Lower Key Stage 2, children continue to write narratives, which include myths and legends. They will write to inform, where they will become familiar with more genres, which include: non-chronological reports, instructions, recounts, persuasive texts, biographies and explanation texts. In Upper Key Stage 2, children will continue to write narratives, but they will innovate them in more complex ways, for example through flashbacks and sequels. Writing to inform includes: explanations, non-chronological reports, newspaper articles and in Year 6: discussions, critiques, persuasion, recounts and letter writing, where they work on appropriate register and levels of formality.

In short, progression in writing is demonstrated by the increasingly demanding curriculum objectives, the variety of genres that the children are exposed to, the method of innovating, the subject content for background knowledge and the narrative thread and expectations.

Cultural Capital

The EEF 2021 states: ‘Schools should focus first on developing core classroom teaching strategies that improve the literacy capabilities of the whole class. With this in place,the need for additional support should decrease. Nevertheless, it is likely that a small number of pupils will require additional support. Moreover, they say there is a strong and

consistent body of evidence demonstrating the benefit of structured interventions for pupils who are struggling with their literacy. The first step should be to accurately diagnose capabilities and difficulties in order to match pupils to appropriate, evidence informed interventions that target specific areas of difficulty.

We endeavour to provide equal and equitable opportunities. We use many strategies to scaffold writing, which include interventions, use of Colourful Semantics, worked examples, direct instruction, cloze procedures and guided writing groups to promote talk and collaboration.

We provide many enrichment opportunities that support the writing process by igniting imagination and sparking creativity. Visitors have been invited in to perform stories to each year group, focussing on their topic work. Through topic work, children visit a plethora of places that inspire fabulous writing. Annually, all our pupils take part in National Poetry Day, where they have the opportunity to perform and compose their own poems. We also promote writing competitions such as BBC 500 words short story competition.

SEND

We understand that all children have different starting points. Teachers work closely with our Inclusion Lead to engage children in writing, which may include use of technology as a means to record, Spelling Aid, Talking Tins, vocabulary mats, phonics mats, cloze procedure tasks, guided group work and use of widget and colourful semantics. Children may be working on their own curriculum if required.

How do we assess?

We use both formative and summative assessment to help us inform our judgements. We have regular moderation meetings for all year groups within our setting and across settings to ensure our writing judgements are consistent and fair.

EYFS

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) profile summarises and describes children’s attainment at the end of the EYFS.

It gives:

• The child’s attainment in relation to the 17 Early Learning Goal (ELG) descriptors
• A short narrative describing the child’s 3 characteristics of effective learning

Teachers’ assessments are primarily based on observing a child’s daily activities and events. In particular, practitioners note the learning that a child demonstrates spontaneously, independently and consistently in a range of contexts.  Ongoing assessment (also known as formative assessment) is an integral part of the learning and development process. It involves teachers observing children to understand their level of attainment, interests and learning styles, and to then shape learning experiences for each child reflecting those observations. When compiling the profile, teachers must review the evidence gathered in order to make a judgement for each child and for each ELG.

The judgement must say whether the child’s learning and development is:

• best described by the level of development expected at the end of the EYFS (‘expected’)
• not yet at the level of development expected at the end of the EYFS (‘emerging’)

The Early Learning Goal for writing in EYFS:

- Write recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed;

- Spell words by identifying sounds in them and representing the sounds with a

letter or letters;

- Write simple phrases and sentences that can be read by others

Key Stage 1

At the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2) the children’s writing will be teacher assessed.

At Parkfield, we administer the optional KS1 English grammar, punctuation and spelling test and use the results to inform English writing teacher assessment judgments.

Key Stage 2

At the end of Key Stage 2 (Year 6), pupils are required to participate in SATS tests during a specified week in May, which include:

• English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 1: questions

• English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 2: spelling

When assessing writing, teachers will use extended writing pieces both in English and across the curriculum to make an informed judgment.

Impact

By the end of their time at Parkfield, as authors, the children will be:

• Successful learners who write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
• Confident individuals who can write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others.
• Responsible citizens who use the skills of language to participate fully as a member of society.