Intent
At Westwood Academy, we are dedicated to deliver an exciting, innovative English curriculum, which enables and empowers all children to acquire the skills and knowledge they need to become articulate speakers, inspired writers and avid readers for life. Our aim is to create writers who have the following skills:
- The ability to write with fluency and stamina
- Can write for a particular purpose taking into account the audience the writing is intended for
- Can imitate the language, structure and punctuation devices used in effective writing models
- Can use an extensive bank of vocabulary and an excellent knowledge of writing techniques with which to communicate the written word with an appropriate authorial voice and tone
- Can display excellent transcription skills that ensure their writing is well presented, punctuated, and spelled correctly.
- Can review, edit and proof-read their writing so that every piece of writing they produce is to the best of their ability and better than the last.
Our aim is to ensure that every child, regardless of their background or ability, leaves our school as a confident and capable writer with an understanding of different literacy techniques and how to use them effectively, thus being able to ‘Write like a Writer’.
Implementation
Developing pupils’ metacognitive and critical thinking skills
- Teachers authentically model the writing process and thinking aloud
- Critical literacy skills are incorporated into the curriculum
- Links to other curriculum areas – where appropriate – reflect important real-world knowledge
Ensuring the highest expectations for the attainment and progress of all pupils
- Progression in learning is mapped across units, year groups and key stages
- A diverse representation of high-quality texts are used as models and examples
- Teachers have conviction that every child has something worthwhile to write about
Supporting all pupils in developing pleasure for writing and discovering their own unique writing voice
- Pupils have independence and autonomy
- Pupils have choice to write about what interests and excites them, and reflects their own lives
- A wide range of opportunities are provided for pupils to write for authentic purposes and audiences
- Planning acknowledges and values pupils’ own diverse funds of knowledge
Developing a secure understanding of the writing process
- The writing process is recursive and not linear
- Functional grammar is taught within context
- New learning is introduced in small, manageable steps
- Pupils have frequent opportunities to write at length
- Pupil conferencing allows teachers to meet individual pupil needs
How learning to be writers gives our children cultural capital
- By teaching children to become life-long independent motivated writers, we are providing them with the most powerful cultural capital you can have – an ability to turn their writer’s voice into powerful writing.
- By writing within a community of writers, children find that they can learn from others’ cultural capital.
- We teach children how writing can be a powerful tool for understanding new knowledge and how you can re-organise it and have a personal response to it.
Impact
Through our very carefully planned and sequenced English curriculum, pupils will make strong progress from their own personal starting points. They will become confident writers with the ability to plan, draft and edit their own work and, by the end of Key Stage 2, will have the stamina to enjoy sustained writing whilst manipulating language, grammar and punctuation to create effect. Skills taught in English lessons will be transferred into other subjects, demonstrating consolidation of skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific vocabulary, grammar and punctuation effectively. Most importantly, children develop a love of writing and become a confident and capable lifelong writer.
Resources
Tips for Writing with Children at Home
Westwood Reading and Writing Long Term Plan
Writing Implementation and Long Term Overview