Overall Intent 

We want our children to be able to communicate themselves fully and properly as writers. We aim for children to be able to express their ideas, thoughts, feelings and be able to articulate these in a way that any audience they choose can understand. We have created our writing curriculum based on our history and geography units each half term, Rights Respecting Schools agenda and the whole school event calendar. This is to support children’s wider learning but also give context and opportunity to deepen learning across all subjects.

Each unit is linked to a well written text, to provide a context or a model for writing. Each year children will cover a range of texts from different genres, periods in time, cultures and writing styles to broaden their writing skills and ensure all types of sentence and genre writing are covered. We want  children to be able to articulate their ideas and make choices in their writing which are well constructed and considered. We want children to love writing, enjoy the process and be proud.

We want children to be proficient in spelling, use neat, joined cursive writing and be able to write in a range of sentence structures using a wide range of punctuation. Children apply these strategies, learnt in writing lessons, to a wide range of writing in other subjects and homework. We recognise the importance of talk in learning to write.

We ensure children have the time to orally rehearse writing, at genre level and sentence level, starting with a Talk for Writing approach in the EYFS. We value the skill of publishing and presenting in our writing cycle, allowing the children the opportunity to celebrate their achievements and see the impact of their writing on others. This is what we believe creates real writers. 

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Implementation 

All writing units cover a writing cycle which covers: immersion and ideas, deconstructing a text, planning and reconstructing a text, drafting a text, editing and improving, sharing their writing outcomes.  These elements vary from cycle to cycle and how long children spend on each part of the cycle is dependent on prior knowledge, the type of genre being written and the context of the writing. The sharing of their work can be done through a range of mediums to reach a range of audiences from museums, to families, local businesses, to other pupils in school. Teaching writing is rooted in good oracy practice. All elements of the cycle employ as much pupil led talk as possible with the teacher as model, guide and facilitator. 

The below table lists ways in which we teach writing. We ensure staff are trained to deliver teaching using these teaching strategies and methods. Clear writing guidance documents are produced half termly based linking to core texts and addressing SPaG teaching points as a guide for sentence level work. Teachers add spellings from yearly overviews based on age related objectives and the RWI spelling programme we use. Weekly overview sheets outline the unit being taught, key teaching points and key vocabulary identified as needing to be taught explicitly. Teachers mark each lesson to ensure misconceptions are noted and corrected. Marking informs the next lesson’s plans. 

Teaching Strategies at Gainsborough	Partner work, completing the work together.Partner marking – checking work against success criteria.I do, we do, you do – to build independence Think aloud’s while modelling writing Group roles to complete a group activityA and B partners, swap to A and A and B and BDeliberate mistakes Oral rehearsalApplication of phonic knowledge for transcription Explicit vocabulary teaching
Immersion Intent	The purpose of immersing children at the start of the unit is to ensure that children:-are inspired, motivated and engaged in the writing unit.-can orally rehearse what they will write – they need to say it before they can write it-have secure content to write about, from sharing ideas and making links to real life and first-person experiences-gain a sense of the emotion of a piece-rehearse vocabulary in context so children have a secure understanding of how to apply new words within the context
Immersion Activities	Writing-based or talk-based activitiesDrama activities that get characters in roleInterviews in roleOrdering a text – focus on sequencingReading and exploring stimulus text, noting vocabulary, features and sentence structures Interviewing someoneA walk or visit to gather ideasRevisiting key content from learning in another subject e.g. history so children know what they are drawing on
Deconstruction Intent	The purpose of deconstructing an example text is to ensure that children:- are exposed to context related vocabulary and can collect a range of subject specific words to use – analyse how sentence types are constructed grammatically and have a model for how to apply these structures in their writing- understand the overall purpose of the genre and get a feel for the whole text.- understand the purpose of genre-specific features
Deconstruction Activities	Recap the features that are being identified as part of the deconstruction to ensure children are secure in what they are looking for and what component features are called.Teacher reading aloud with the text under the visualiser and annotating SPaG features. Children annotating text type themselves listing, circling, classifying, recording different types.
Planning Intent	The purpose of planning is to ensure that children:-develop a sense of the shape, sequence and structure of the piece – how it fits together-understand where context-related vocabulary might sit within the piece- understand where genre features are placed within a particular piece-do not experience overload at the point of drafting – they have a co-constructed prompt
Planning Activities	Graphic organisers to shape, sequence and structure the pieceStory-mapping to sequence narrativesDifferent planning formats to suit different text types
Draft Intent	The purpose of drafting a text is so that children:-understand how to take planned ideas and build them into a coherent structure-apply taught vocabulary in an appropriate context-include sentence structures whilst drafting
Draft Activities	Teacher modellingChildren drafting in books
Edit and Write Intent	The purpose of editing a text is so that children:-have an opportunity to review their writing and address mistakes based on previous learning e.g. previously taught spellings, punctuation and sentence structures.- receive and respond to feedback which addresses mistakes and misconceptions related to newly-taught taught vocabulary, sentence structures and genre features -develop an understanding of the process of writing involving re-reading, editing and improving-evaluate where they have successfully included genre features and where they could make improvements
Edit and Write Activities	Respond to teacher feedbackPeer-assess against SC and make edits
Sharing Intent  Judgement applied re publishing:-how much – some or all?-what for? (e.g. display, visitor)	The purpose of sharing a text is so that children:-celebrate their achievements and experience a sense of pride-share best practice with class peers and share best outcomes.-inspire younger children to write in that genre. -share learning with parents and the wider community-produce high-quality work to showcase on displays
Sharing Activities	Writing to public figures, museums and others to demand change or highlight their opinionPartner-sharing to evaluate and share successPublishing work for shared displays of booksPublishing work to share with other children

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Impact 

Our children love to write. They see writing as purposeful and powerful – a way to share their ideas, tell their stories and make their voices heard. They take pride in their work, eagerly sharing their writing with others and celebrating the progress they make as confident, capable authors.

Regular book looks and lesson walkthroughs clearly demonstrate the strong progression of writing skills across all year groups. Pupils write fluently and with ambition, drawing on a rich and adventurous vocabulary and applying a wide range of writing techniques to enhance detail, description and impact. They are thoughtful and reflective writers, highly skilled at editing their own work and that of others, and confidently evaluating effectiveness while suggesting meaningful improvements.

Each term, pupils complete an independent writing assessment which allows them to showcase the full range of skills in their writing toolkit. These assessments consistently highlight the excellent transcription skills of our children, with writing that is well presented, accurately punctuated and carefully spelled. Pupils also demonstrate a strong ability to organise and structure their ideas, skilfully using a range of cohesive devices to create clear, engaging and coherent texts.

Our School Fundamentals Tracker and Writing Assessment Grids ensure that teachers and leaders have a precise understanding of each child’s achievements and next steps. This enables staff to provide timely, focused feedback, ensuring every pupil is supported and challenged to continually improve and to thrive as a writer.

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