Statement of Intent

At Barnham Broom C of E VA Primary School we recognise that fluency in the English language is an essential foundation for success in all subjects. We aim to develop pupils’ reading and writing in all subjects to support their acquisition of knowledge. The intent of our early Literacy curriculum is to deliver a curriculum which is accessible to all and that will maximise the outcomes for every child as they move through school. We strive to excite and engage our pupils with books, rhymes and language, therefore, developing a love for sharing stories and becoming lost in their own imagination and creative ideas. We aim to engage pupils in writing, beginning with emergent, experimental writing and then challenge them to apply strategies taught to form words and sentences. 

Writing

At Barnham Broom C of E VA Primary School we begin our writing journey in EYFS by engaging the children in 'Drawing Club'. We continue Drawing Club through EYFS and into KS1.  Our writing curriculum journey into KS2, is then supported by 'The Write Stuff' - an approach to building writing, developed by Jane Considine.

Implementation

We start writing from enjoying and sharing books and stories, placing a strong emphasis on a love of literature. 

'Drawing Club' is an approach that immerses children into a world full of imagination where anything can happen and often does!

The children go on adventures through picture books, tales and animations together before then creating their own magical stories.  the children are immersed in a world of stories, they share a treasure trove of vocabulary to open up the playground of language. They develop creativity and imagination, and are enthused to write their own stories.

We use Drawing Club principles across EYFS and into KS1 building in 'Curious Quests' to immerse children further into story and poetry, whilst developing their spelling, grammar and punction knowledge, and applying their phonics skills.

The next step in our writing curriculum is based around 'The Write Stuff' by Jane Considine. The approach utilises a method called 'Sentence Stacking' which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing. 

'The Write Stuff' supports our children to develop a clear understanding of how texts are constructed by building and editing sentences to create whole texts.  The units centre around a shared book or text that is explored and provides a basis upon which the children build their write within a vocabulary-rich environment which supports our children to become fluent writers.

'The Write Stuff' follows a method called 'Sentence Stacking' which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together chronologically and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing.  An individual lesson is based on a sentence model, broken into 3 learning chunks. Each learning chunk has three sections: 

Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence. Children 'chot' (chat and jot) down their ideas in the initiate phase from stimulating resources, such as pictures, music and drama.

Model section – the teacher then models sentence scaffolds that outlines clear writing features and techniques taken from the 'Writing Rainbow'.

Enable section – the children write their sentence, following the model.

Children are challenged to ‘Deepen the Moment’ which requires them to independently draw upon previously learnt skills and apply them to their writing during that chunk.

Through regular reading, we want children to build up an extensive and rich vocabulary for use in their own writing and this 'word collecting' is an integral part of The Write Stuff approach. 

Regular opportunities are taken for children to practise their writing skills independently both in English and across the curriculum. We aim to provide a balance of narrative, non-fiction and poetry throughout each term.  

Within all aspects of writing we focus on handwriting and presentation. Click on the link below for activities to do at home.

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/english/primary-handwriting/

Within this website there are activities and sheets to download to help your child to improve and develop their handwriting.

To enable families to ensure that they are kept informed about what their children are learning in ‘writing’ we have produced some Knowledge Organisers which clearly show what each child should be able to do in each different year group.