For further information, see “READING FOR PLEASURE” policy.
The programmes of study for writing at key stages 1 and 2 are constructed similarly to those for reading:
At Covingham Park, we aim to develop pupils’ competence in these two dimensions. In addition, pupils are taught how to plan, revise and evaluate their writing. These aspects of writing are incorporated into the National Curriculum programmes of study for composition.
Writing down ideas fluently depends on effective transcription: that is, on spelling quickly and accurately through knowing the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics) and understanding the morphology (word structure) and orthography (spelling structure) of words. Effective composition involves forming, articulating and communicating ideas, and then organising them coherently for a reader. This requires clarity, awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar.
Writing Intent
At Covingham Park, it is our intention to provide all children with a high-quality education in English that will develop their reading, writing, spelling, speaking and listening skills. Writing is a fundamental part of this, with many opportunities provided across the curriculum to develop and apply these skills.
It is our intention that pupils develop a clear understanding of the writing process and how effective writing impacts its reader. Through our topic- based curriculum, we foster pupils’ interest in writing by exploring a variety of genres and offer a reason and context which allows the children to write for a purpose and audience.
It is our intention to broaden our pupils’ experience and exposure to high level vocabulary to allow them to apply, alongside grammatical knowledge, within and across the curriculum. We intend that our pupils learn to understand the relationship between words, word meaning, implied meaning and figurative language within their writing lessons. Spelling is a continued focus, with the addition of key vocabulary being introduced and embedded within the curriculum. Children need to learn spelling rules, patterns and the need for care in spelling to allow others to understand. This continues to be an area which we work on with our pupils.
Writing Implementation
At Covingham Park Primary School, we understand the importance of reading to support writing and believe that writing is strengthened by developing a love for reading within our pupils. Therefore, we have carefully mapped each topic focus across the year for the whole school with a focus on developing the key reading strategies and skills of fluency and comprehension, as well as developing grammar and punctuation knowledge and the understanding of how to use and apply these in a range of subjects, contexts and genres.
This feeds into the children’s writing by deconstructing a high-quality modelled text for each genre into its format, language, audience and purpose (FLAP) in Upper School and how it looks, what vocabulary is used and who it is for (See, Say, Send) in Lower School. From this, pupils are taught the grammar from the National Curriculum which is taught to correspond to the genres being written as part of the writing process. This ensures they fully understand the different components needed. Our tailored writing journey then ensures we build on this knowledge by giving the children opportunities to plan, write an initial draft with a clear context and purpose and then evaluate the effectiveness of their writing for purpose and audience by editing and finally improving it.
We believe that pupils who understand the reason for writing, demonstrate flair and effective writing composition, leading to high quality outcomes.