Spurcroft Primary School and Nursery
The future begins here...
English - Writing
Our intent for writing
At Spurcroft, we believe that a high-quality English curriculum is essential. We aim to foster a lifelong love of language by ensuring that our curriculum equips children with a strong command of the spoken and written word. Our ambition is for all children to communicate their ideas confidently, both orally and in writing. We want our children to become confident, fluent and independent writers who can apply their knowledge of writing, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary in line with the expectations of the National Curriculum. At Spurcroft, we believe that high-quality writing is inspired by engagement with high-quality texts. We follow our own ‘book-led’ curriculum, with texts carefully selected to inspire our pupils while providing rich opportunities to meet the objectives of the National Curriculum. Our chosen texts reflect the interests of our school community, while also introducing children to different cultures, perspectives and experiences. We believe that a clear understanding of the audience and purpose is fundamental to sucessful writing.
In the Early Years Foundation Stage, Year 1 and Year 2, pupils follow the Read Write Inc. plans for writing, developing the foundations of transcription, sentence construction, spelling and composition. As children move through the school, these foundational skills are developed further, enabling pupils to write with increasing fluency, accuracy, creativity and independence.
Children are also taught to review, edit and improve their writing. They develop an understanding that successful writing is a process and are encouraged to reread their work, identify errors, make improvements and evaluate the effectiveness of their choices.
Ultimately, we want every child at Spurcroft to see themselves as a writer: someone who can use language confidently, purposefully and creatively to communicate their ideas, express their experiences and engage with the world around them.
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How do we teach writing at Spurcroft?
Read Write Inc
In EYFS and Year 1 our writing Curriculum is taught following the programme of ‘Read Write Inc.’ This is an approved systematic synthetic phonics programme.
Within the writing element of this children are taught from reception to form letters, spell words, use punctuation then develop ideas into sentences. Children move from daily speed sounds lessons initially in reception to following the full ‘Get Writing’ programme where children will ‘hold a sentence’ from a known text which they have read in class then ‘build a sentence’ from their own ideas.
Drawing Club
Alongside Read, Write inc, KS1 children also take part in Drawing Club. This is an opportunity for them to be creative and use drawings as an inspiration for their writing. Each day, they listen to a story and draw a picture based on the book. The teacher models how to write a sentence, relating this to their phonics learning, then the children write their own.
Book led curriculum
Once pupils have completed the Read Write Inc. phonics programme, they are taught English through a 30-minute daily reading lesson, followed by a one-hour English lesson. Each lesson is carefully planned around a clear learning intention, which makes the purpose of the learning clear to pupils.
Our English curriculum is book-led, with carefully selected high-quality texts, and occasionally videos, providing the stimulus and context for writing. Teachers prepare pupils for writing through modelling of ideas, vocabulary, grammar and writing techniques linked to the stimulus. This enables pupils to develop an understanding of how writers make choices and how these choices can be applied to their own writing.
Lessons follow a structure of modelled, guided and independent writing. Teachers model the writing process and provide opportunities for pupils to practise and apply new learning, linked to the stimulus, before producing their own independent writing.
Oracy is an important part of every English lesson. Pupils are given regular opportunities to share ideas, discuss vocabulary and rehearse sentences before and during writing. This supports pupils in developing the language and confidence they need to become confident writers.
Book led curriculum overviews
