Intent

At Chartham Primary, we want all children to be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing and reach their full potential.

Our aims are to:

• Provide exciting writing opportunities and experiences that engage and enhance all pupils through the use of the Jane Considine approach.
• We want all children to acquire a wide vocabulary and to be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time in primary school, building on their strong phonetic base created through the use of Little Wandle in Key Stage 1.
• We want all children to have a solid understanding of grammar and apply it effectively to their writing.
• 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 children should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, in part by developing a legible handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school.
• We want every child to have a good knowledge of phonics to springboard children to becoming fluent writers using Little Wandle.
• To plan a progressive curriculum to build upon previous teaching, with regular assessment (independent writes) to ensure each child’s needs are met to reach their full potential.

Implementation

At Chartham Primary, writing is taught 4x per week across the whole school. Each class studies a different high-quality text, lasting from a few weeks to a whole term depending on text type, length and year group. Long, medium and short-term planning and the use of progression maps ensure that a variety of genres are progressively taught and built upon both throughout the year and throughout the school.

Writing is also a key focus in the wider curriculum. Children are given the opportunity to transfer and build upon their knowledge of a genre studied during English lessons and apply this learning to a topic focus.

Through the Jane Considine writing process, children will acquire and learn the skills to plan, draft and refine their written work over time and are encouraged to develop independence in being able to identify their own areas for improvement in all pieces of writing.

Within each unit of work, sequenced lessons ensure that prior learning is checked and built upon and that National Curriculum objectives are taught through a combination of approaches/opportunities e.g.

• Opportunities to participate in drama & spoken language activities
• Exploring the features of different text types and modelled examples (E.g. Spotting features in a modelled example)
• Handwriting practise
• Vocabulary practise
• Shared writing (modelled expectations)
• Discrete spelling lessons
• Independent writing
• Planning, drafting, editing, up-levelling and presenting
• Performing

Phonics and Spellings

In Reception and Year 1, the Little Wandle programme will be followed daily to ensure secure phonetic understanding. This involves daily keep up sessions for those requiring additional support at every stage of the programme.

From Year 2, classes follow a progressive spelling scheme that builds on their existing phonetic knowledge as well as looking at spelling rules and patterns. Through exploring spelling patterns and rules, we aim to create confident and proficient spellers using a discrete teaching approach underpinned by phonics.

Children are also taught to

• Spell accurately and identify reasons for mis-spellings.
• Proof-read their spellings
• Recognise and use word origins, families and roots to build their skills
• Use dictionaries and thesauruses. 

Impact

Teachers use assessment as an integral part of the teaching and learning process and link it clearly to the children’s next steps. Through regular staff moderation and teacher assessment, a clear picture of each individual child’s strengths and weaknesses will be created, allowing the class teacher to tailor support as needed.

The impact on our children is that they have the knowledge and skills to be able to write successfully for a purpose and audience. With the implementation of the writing sequence being established and taught in both key stages, children are becoming more confident writers and have the ability to plan, draft and edit their own work. By the end of key stage 2, children have developed a writer’s craft, they enjoy sustained writing and can manipulate language, grammar and punctuation to create effect. As all aspects of English are an integral part of the curriculum, cross-curricular writing standards have also improved and skills taught in the English lesson are transferred into other subjects; this shows consolidation of skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific language, grammar and punctuation.