Writing Intent
“Writing to me is simply thinking through my fingers” Isaac Asimov
At Outwoods we offer an approach to writing that allows children to reach their full potential. The writing experience for our children must feel real, relevant and meaningful. We encourage children to appreciate the pleasure, satisfaction and accomplishment of being a writer whatever their age or stage of development.
We understand the importance of children’s lives outside school and use these experiences to inspire. We believe that when a child’s thoughts, interest’s hobbies and lives are acknowledged and celebrated children are motivated to engage in writing that is both pleasurable and purposeful. Children are supported and guided to write with flair and imagination producing outstanding individual pieces of writing.
“Reading is like breathing in, and writing is like breathing out” Pam Allyn

Writing Implementation

At Outwoods teachers ensure that:

• Writing is a daily activity and writing lessons are carried out 4 x weekly
• Writing activities are planned to enhance and develop pupil's writing skills.
• Tasks are purposeful and relevant to the pupils
• Power of Reading teaching units are used to sequence children's learning
• Pupils study a high quality text every half term. This helps them to see that writing and reading are inextricably linked and encourages them to become empathic and ambitious writers.
• Pupils acquire the skills to plan, draft and refine their writing.
• Prior learning is checked and built upon in lessons and across year groups
• National Curriculum objectives are taught through a variety of approaches and opportunities
• Writing skills are modelled and learning is scaffolded to support children's development
• Starting points for writing are linked to the children's interests and learning and include drama and role play
• Different genres of writing are revisited and built upon in each year group and phase.
• Writing is a key focus across the curriculum, especially in History and Geography lessons
• Discrete handwriting, spelling, grammar & punctuation lessons support development of skills
• Vocabulary development is a key focus in school
• A half termly focus is used across the school to develop language and vocabulary

Writing Impact

The impact on our children is that they have the knowledge and skills to be able to write successfully for a purpose and audience. With the implementation of the writing sequences being established and taught in both key stages, children are becoming more confident writers and have the ability to plan, draft and edit their own work. By the end of key stage 2, children have developed a writer’s craft, they enjoy sustained writing and can manipulate language, grammar and punctuation to create effect. As all aspects of English are an integral part of the curriculum, cross curricular writing standards have also improved and skills taught in the English lesson are transferred into other subjects; this shows consolidation of skills and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific language, grammar and punctuation.

Teachers use assessment as an integral part of the teaching and learning process and link it clearly to the children’s next steps.

• Target Tracker is used to identify skills learnt and help focus on developments for individuals
• Constructive marking with ‘next steps’ and ‘modelling’ where appropriate is used as well as whole class feed forward sessions to develop areas with the whole class.  Children know exactly what they need to do next to make progress in their writing and are encouraged to respond to this in purple pen
• Writing is moderated in year groups, phases, whole school groups and with consortium school. This ensures consistency and accuracy of judgements.