ENGLISH
At Basildon C.E. Primary School, we are committed to developing confident and fluent writers. We want all our children to develop into prolific writers who can effectively engage, inform and persuade an audience.
To enable our pupils to achieve this, we adopt a Talk for Writing approach. Our English units are based on a high quality text spine and allows children to explore writing across different genres for a range of purposes. We recognise that confident writers stem from confident speakers and thus, the development of oracy skills underpins our entire writing curriculum.
Disadvantaged children and those with SEND are given full access to the writing curriculum. Teachers use a range of strategies to enable all children to become successful writers including:
-
Word mats, templates and additional resources to support with written tasks
-
Guided group work with teacher or LSA
-
LSA led interventions (where appropriate)
-
Opportunity for children to showcase writing to wider community (School newsletter/Basildon village newsletter)
Early Writing
We recognise the importance of developing children’s story telling skills as a key foundation to developing strong writing.
Children share their ideas and stories with an adult who then scribes for them. These stories are then shared and performed in the Helicopter story sessions. As they progress in their development, children are then encouraged to scribe their own stories.
What writing looks like in lessons:
-
Children write in the majority of English lessons.
-
Each unit is based around a high quality central text.
-
Units are structured in half termly fiction (writing to entertain) and non-fiction (writing to inform/ persuade) to allow children to develop language and master skills across a number of pieces of writing.
-
Units start which children unpicking the features of a key text and then writing closely around this modelled text (imitate)
-
Children are then encouraged to use the modelled text but put their own twist of interpretation on it (innovate)
-
Finally, children create their own free writing within the genre (invent)
-
Children are encouraged to develop and refine their skills through lots of mini writes in any given unit.
-
At key stages teachers model high quality writing and share the writing process.
-
Working walls are used to share key vocabulary and tool kits to support learning in each unit.
-
Grammar is taught in the context of the genre being studied rather than as isolated lessons to allow children to apply these skills straight away.
What writing at Basildon looks like outside of lessons:
-
Practicing and developing skills from English lessons to develop learning in other subjects i.e. diary, letter writing in history, instructions in science.
-
Author visits and workshops
-
Whole school Book days
-
Regular staff training
-
Writing displayed in classrooms and around the school
Formative Assessment
-
Verbal Feedback – the vast majority of feedback is in conversation with the pupil, allowing misconceptions to be spotted and effectively addressed at an early stage.
-
Teachers may use green and pink marking to identify strengths and weaknesses in writing, we recognise that this has the highest impact in mini writes to then develop skills before children write independently.
Summative Assessment
-
Year groups submit termly writing assessments on target tracker.
-
Teachers moderate as a team and with other school.
-
Year 2 and 6 teachers attend termly writing moderation sessions.
Working walls are used to display key vocabulary for each unit. in the imitate section of talk for writing there is a heavy focus on identifying high level vocabulary that children can then use to enhance their own writing.
Subject leaders map texts taught across the school to ensure a range of diverse texts are taught throughout the English curriculum.
To learn more, please click on the button below.