Writing
At Stanway Fiveways, we recognise that writing is essential to all aspects of life and endeavour to create a healthy and positive lifelong attitude towards writing. Writing can be personally rewarding and enriching. It is one of the primary forms of communication, allowing thoughts to be clarified, emotions to be expressed, experiences to be shared and opinions to be stated.
Our intention is to develop confident, independent writers who understand the writing process: planning, drafting, revising and editing their own work. Children are also taught how to self-assess and peer-assess their writing. Through this, we aim to empower pupils to consider themselves as ‘writers’, encouraging confidence and motivation to write for pleasure.
We use a Talk for Writing approach to support children in developing language, ideas and writing structures (with the teaching sequence following three key stages). The first stage, Imitation, involves children becoming familiar with a model text through listening, speaking, storytelling and the use of actions. This helps them develop an understanding of the text's structure, language and key features. The second stage, Innovation, encourages children to adapt the model text by changing elements such as characters, settings, events or vocabulary. This allows them to develop their own ideas while using the original text as a supportive framework. The third stage, Independent Application, provides children with opportunities to apply their learning by planning and producing their own pieces of writing. They draw upon the structures, vocabulary and writing techniques developed throughout the previous stages, but incorporates their own ideas and interests. Throughout all three stages, children are encouraged to review, edit and improve their writing. They consider the effectiveness of their work, identify areas for development and make improvements to enhance the clarity, coherence and overall quality of their writing.
Talk for Writing strategies, including story mapping, boxing-up plans, shared writing and oral rehearsal, help children to understand how texts are organised and how effective vocabulary and sentence structures can be selected. This process results in high-quality independent writing, which the children are proud of and enjoy sharing with adults and their peers.
Through this Talk for Writing approach children develop the skills and strategies that enable them to write confidently for a range of purposes and a variety of different audiences. Writing lessons provide opportunities for children to practise the skills needed to become competent and fluent writers across a wide range of genres. We follow the 2014 National Curriculum for the teaching and learning of writing skills.
Writing across the Curriculum
Writing at Stanway Fiveways links closely with our topics. Year groups plan together so that all children receive the same experience in every classroom. We provide opportunities for children to apply their learning in meaningful contexts, enhancing engagement. Our broad, balanced curriculum embeds, extends and develops writing skills. A cross-curricular approach gives writing a clear purpose and direction, while enabling children to polish the language structures rehearsed in English lessons and apply them across the curriculum.