At Parkhead Community Primary School, writing and the teaching of writing is the foundation of our curriculum. Writing is a core skill both within school and beyond. Their success in writing, impacts directly on our children’s ability to achieve and reflect their understanding in all other subjects.

Parkhead pupils learn writing through a text-rich approach that enables them to apply the vocabulary, ideas and writing techniques modelled in our core texts. We teach writing so that children write in a range of genres, with a sense of audience and an understanding of purpose. Basic skills such as spelling, handwriting, punctuation and grammar are taught using systematic approach. This process is robust and shows clear progression for all children. 

Intent

At Parkhead Primary we aim to:

• Develop an enthusiasm and enjoyment of writing
• Enable our pupils to meet and exceed National Curriculum expectations in writing
• Enable our pupils to be confident, fluent writers who can apply their skills to a range of contexts.  
• Teach our pupils using a systematic phonics approach so that pupils can apply these skills to their spelling.
• Enable our pupils to write in a wide range of genres for different audiences and purposes
• Ensure that our pupils use a wide range of features to develop their own writing style and have high standards of presentation, spelling, punctuation and grammar
• Focus strongly on vocabulary to allow them to understand and communicate in a clear and engaging manner.

At Parkhead we teach the children to write for a range of purposes.  

• To Entertain
• To Inform
• To Persuade
• To Explain
• To Instruct

Implementation

• Our writing curriculum is based on the expectations of the national curriculum and is designed to ensure progress. It is matched to the needs and interests of our pupils. 
• Early writing is taught through mark making. Then, when the children begin RWI phonics, they are taught the correct letter formations. This begins with writing cvc words, moving onto short sentences and captions using the sounds they have been taught. EYFS children are encouraged to write independently during continuous provision. Short, teacher-led writing tasks are introduced when developmentally appropriate for the children.
• Throughout KS1 and 2, English is taught daily with writing skills being built up over text-based units, culminating in longer final pieces or writing.
• We also aim to enable children to understand how writing styles vary depending on the purpose and audience, and support them to develop their own writing voice.
• At Parkhead Primary School, we use drama and discussion to develop empathy, decision making, confidence and language and communication skills in preparation for writing.
• In order to support the needs of our pupils, the curriculum has vocabulary and basic skills at its core. As children progress through school, children’s vocabulary is improved through consistent exposure to context appropriate vocabulary, which is explicitly taught, displayed in classrooms and revisited. 
• In order for the children to become creative writers, we aim to ensure that certain skills become automatic to prevent cognitive overload. As such, we teach handwriting, spelling, punctuation and grammar rigorously and consistently. Children are taught how to use word banks, sound charts and key vocabulary to support their language choices and spelling.
• High-quality modelling is a key element of writing lessons within our school, both in shared and guided sessions. Basic skills, vocabulary choices and text structure are modelled and explained to the children.
• Proofreading and editing skills are taught from year 2 upwards. Lessons are structured in a way that allows time for self-correction and improvement.  Scaffolds and prompts are given in line with our Effective Feedback and Marking policy, supporting children in making their improvements.

Impact

• The impact on our children is clear in the progress they make and the transferrable writing skills they develop and demonstrate across the curriculum.  Teachers will see incremental improvement of children’s writing to be fairly sure children are learning and of the impact their teaching is having: in other words, children are becoming writers.

• We expect our children to become confident writers by the time they are in Upper Key Stage 2 and be familiar with a range of genres.
• They will have the basic spelling, grammar, punctuation and handwriting skills so that teaching can focus on creativity, writer’s craft, sustained writing and manipulation of these skills for a purpose. This ensures that our Year 6 children have all the necessary skills to be secondary ready.
• Skills taught in the English lessons are transferred into other subjects demonstrating consolidation and a deeper understanding of how and when to use specific grammar and punctuation objectives. 
• Our aim is that when children leave Parkhead they have developed the foundations for strong writing skills in later life and a passion for reading and writing that will enable them to nurture this enthusiasm independently.