Writing

At Lakeside Primary Academy, we believe that every pupil has the right to be able to read, write and communicate with others effectively. English is the main medium through which the rest of the curriculum is learned and taught and a major way in which children interpret the world around them, develop knowledge and understanding and communicate with other people. The teaching of English, in all of its forms, has a high profile within the school.

Intent of the Writing Curriculum at Lakeside

We understand that writing is an essential skill and we want our children to become confident writers. We aim to help our children develop these skills in the following ways:

• Provide high quality learning experiences to develop pupils’ competence in both transcription and composition.
• Introducing and deconstructing a wide variety of model texts, covering a variety of genres
• Exposure to and the teaching of high level vocabulary.
• Giving children opportunities to write for authentic purposes and across a range of subjects
• Ensuring children have opportunities to talk about and plan their writing
• A solid understanding of grammar and ability to use it accurately
• Giving children opportunity to evaluate, revise and edit their own work as well as offer feedback on the work of their peers
• To be able to spell, not only the prescribed spelling words but also words connected to the wider curriculum
• Take pride in their work and its presentation, including their handwriting

Implementation of the Writing Curriculum at Lakeside

We teach English as whole class lessons, so that all children have access to the age-related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum. Within lessons all teachers follow a lesson structure and adapts teaching to enable all learners to achieve.  

In writing lessons, we follow Pathways scheme of work to deliver the key skills of the national curriculum. These key skills are taught and repeated; there are multiple opportunities throughout each unit to use and apply the skills until they can be mastered fully. Within each sequence, there are many opportunities for incidental short- burst writing with an extended written outcome built up to by the end of each unit. The ideas and work are pitched at ARE, but there is no ceiling in lessons and higher achievers are given opportunities to extend their writing in a variety of ways, including through showing greater control in their writing, a deeper understanding of the impact that their writing has on the reader and by using a higher level of vocabulary and grammar features.

Planning follows the sequence below:

• Writing units always start with an opportunity to hook the pupils into the context of learning and to assess previously taught skills. A short writing task is set at the end of this session to assess previously taught skills. (The focus is on assessment of previously taught skills and is not intended to assess pupils on skills or genres that they have not been taught before.) Where pupils are struggling to apply and to use Gateways keys, these should be built into the planning of the unit to ensure more personalised learning.
• Throughout the unit key skills (usually 3 or 4) are introduced with many opportunities along the way to practise and apply these skills in different writing tasks. The tasks use genres that the pupils will be most familiar with such as character or setting descriptions, dialogue, diary entries, instructions, poetry and sentence work, providing a range of on-going evidence for writing assessment.
• The final section of the writing sequence begins with sectioning and sequencing texts using a model with the opportunity for children to write an extended piece of writing. In this section pupils are encouraged to plan, write, check, edit, re-draft and publish as required; with the focus on using and applying the skills they have been taught.

Grammar and Punctuation

Grammar is embedded within our writing units, so that the grammatical structures can be seen in context of the genre of writing. Washing lines can be seen around school that showcase what a good piece of work should look like, clearly labelling the grammatical structures in context. In KS2 we also deliver discreet punctuation and grammar lessons.

Spelling

KS2 children use a sounds and syllables approach to spelling. Sound & Syllables teaches children how to spell by building upon what children already know and understand from phonics teaching, the crucial relationship between sounds and spellings. The Sounds & Syllables sequence consists of five simple steps: (1) say the word clearly; (2) snip the word into syllables; (3) say the sounds and write the spellings for each syllable in turn; (4) target and correct any misspellings; and (5) lock in those tricky spellings by linking them to similar spellings in known words.

Handwriting

Handwriting needs self dicipline, skill and quality teacher input. Good handwriting gives the reader a favourable impression of work in front of them. Children are therefore taught to present their work in as careful and attractive manner as possible. It also plays a part in their personal development because care, pride, concentration and perseverance are required qualities. As a school we follow a precursive handwriting style and use the 'Achieveing Excellence in Handwriting' framework for this. Handwriting is taught discretely throughout the week. 

Cross Curricular Writing 

English is woven throughout our curriculum. Have a look at some examples of writing across Lakeside below.

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