English - Writing

At Plympton St Mary’s and Old Priory Junior Academy ( St. Mary’s Priory Schools)  we believe that speaking, listening, reading and writing are fundamental life skills, which enable children to communicate effectively in all areas of the curriculum and equips them for the challenges they will face in the wider world.

At our schools, we endeavour to create a love for literacy. We want every child to leave us with the skills of an excellent writer. Throughout their time at St. Mary’s Priory Schools, children develop their skills by exploring a wide-range of genres, with a focus on exploring a range of models of excellence and using these to guide the drafting and editing process. We expect the highest standards of writing every time a child writes in any subject.

We aim that:

• Children have the ability to write with fluency and each has an author’s voice.
• Children are writing for a purpose and their writing is engaging; they think about the impact they want their writing to have on the reader and know how they will achieve this.
• Children develop writing from high quality text models and worked examples.
• Children develop proficiency in writing in a range of genres, have a sophisticated bank of vocabulary, and an excellent knowledge of writing techniques to extend details or description.
• Opportunities for writing purposefully are developed through other areas of the curriculum and beyond the school.
• Children develop writing stamina.
• Children are motivated to re-read, edit and improve their writing so every piece of writing they produce is to the best of their ability and better than the last.
• Children display excellent transcription skills that ensure their writing is well presented, punctuated and spelt correctly

We ensure that children develop a love of writing and the skills needed to be an effective writer:

• Teachers ensure that short and long writing opportunities are regularly provided in a range of curriculum subjects.
• Modelled, shared, guided and independent writing are frequently used by teachers.
• Children are provided with clear expectations and outcomes when writing.
• Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar and Phonics are taught explicitly and applied to their text.
• High-quality texts are used as models for children’s own writing
• Teachers use a four-stage model when teaching writing:
• Familiarisation- ‘Learning about the text’
• Practising writing
• Independent writing
• Proof-reading/ editing