West Leigh Infant School

Writing

Intent

At West Leigh Infant School, we want all children to be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing and reach their full potential.

Our approach adopts The Talk for Writing (TFW) method by Pie Corbett, enabling children to imitate orally the language they need for a particular topic, before reading and analysing it, and then writing their own version. TFW is a process that uses spoken activities to develop writing skills. Firstly by expanding and developing pupils’ oral language skills, and by then scaffolding and modelling the teaching of sentence, paragraph and text construction all of which create quality writing.

Implementation

At West Leigh Infant School, TFW is taught 3 to 4 x per week across the whole school. Each year group studies a range of different high-quality texts, lasting from a few weeks to a whole half 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, especially in ‘Topic’ lessons. 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.

TFW is taught following the stages below:

The imitation stage: This stage begins with a ‘hook’ to engage the children and give them a sense of enjoyment, audience and purpose. A model text which is pitched above the pupils’ level, is learnt through a’ text map’ and actions (standardised across the year group) to strengthen memory. This model text contains the structures and language patterns the children will need when writing for themselves. Activities such as drama are used to deepen understanding. The model text and other quality texts are read for vocabulary, comprehension, language patterns and writing techniques (toolkits). Throughout these phases we rehearse key spellings and grammatical patterns. Short burst writing is also used within this stage to practise key grammar and punctuation focusses.

The innovation stage: Once familiar with the model text, pupils are led by the teacher into creating their own version. Pupils in EYFS innovate through substitution, Year 1 through substitution and addition and Year 2 use the boxing up structure to create a new version.

Shared and guided writing, modelled by the teacher, is used to enable pupils to write their own version step by step concentrating on bringing all the elements together, writing effectively and accurately. Feedback is given during the lesson so that pupils can be taught how to improve their writing, make it more accurate, until they can increasingly edit in pairs or on their own.

Independent application and invention

At least once a term, pupils have the opportunity to independently apply what they have been taught and practiced throughout the previous stages. Pupils are provided with a rich stimulus to make their writing purposeful. Writing will often be staged over a number of days. Non-fiction writing allows pupils to apply what they have learnt across the wider curriculum. Pupils in EYFS should be exploring and acting out stories throughout provision.

Handwriting

It is paramount that children are rigorously taught correct letter formation from the very beginning of their time in school. During the foundation stage at West Leigh Infant School, the children are taught to sit properly in order to have the correct posture for writing, hold a pencil in the correct position and develop a legible handwriting style. In KS1, we use the ‘PenPals’ handwriting scheme which allows for clear progression. After securing correct letter formation, the children start to join their letters in Year 1 and then consolidate this in Year 2 where they apply this in extended pieces of writing.

Teachers are expected to role model the school’s handwriting style when marking children’s work, writing on the board and on displays around the school.

Spelling

In the EYFS, Year 1 and early parts of Year 2, spelling is taught through our Read, Write, Inc (RWI) reading scheme of work. In these sessions, the children learn to spell words containing sounds from Speed Sets 1, 2 and 3. As the children move through Year 2, the children will learn to spell words containing the more complex spelling patterns and rules. In addition to this, children in KS1 have a set of spellings to learn weekly. These words are based on the 100 High Frequency and Common Exception words; all of which the children are expected to spell by the time they reach the end of Year 2.

Through teaching spelling, we aim to create confident and proficient spellers.

By the time they leave our school, our children should be able 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

By the time children leave our school, they will:

• Have a love for writing and write for enjoyment
• Have the confidence to write coherently for a range of purposes, across the curriculum
• Be able to use the punctuation taught across KS1 accurately within extended pieces of writing
• Be proficient spellers
• Be able to independently plan, draft, write and edit their own work
• Present their work neatly; with letters formed at the correct size and orientation to one another