Our aim at Rectory Farm Primary School is for our children to leave Y6 as accomplished writers who have a passion for creative writing and a mastery of the skills involved in the process. Our intention is for children to have gained an experience of writing for a range of different purposes and audiences.

At RFPS reading is placed at the heart of everything we do, but writing is the way in which we express ourselves in an articulate way. We intend that all children learn that writing is an essential tool in which we can engage with an audience for the purpose of entertaining, informing, persuading, and discussing.

At our school, we intend that all children receive a high-quality grammar education. Adults at our school intend to be good role-models and use the correct terminology when talking to children. The teaching of grammar is planned progressively across the school and opportunities to revisit grammar knowledge happen regularly to ensure that children embed what they have learnt.

Early Years

We aim for children to be able to:

• quickly learn how to hold their writing implement correctly in the Early Years class,
• learn how to form graphemes correctly,
• write to communicate effectively,
• orally rehearse what they intend to write,
• confidently attempt to use learnt phonemes in unfamiliar words,
• write for a range of different purposes and audiences,
• spell common misconception words correctly,
• use good grammar and punctuation in their writing,
• form all letters correctly and with automaticity using a Kinetic style,
• join so that their writing style is fluent,
• use ambitious vocabulary in their own writing.

The above aims are based on the NPAT key components for Writing seen below:

• We use our core reading texts to plan quality written outcomes.  This high-quality literature is used to engage and inspire the pupils and provide rich models of writing for them to imitate in their own independent writing, through style, voice, and language structure.  
• Writing is predominantly taught within a 3-week unit of work. However, teachers may decide to shorten this block depending on the genre focus i.e., for a poetry unit. 
• Within each writing unit, there are three clear stages as follows:

Inspire-children spend time immersing, analysing, and practicing skills. There is a focus at this stage on the explicit teaching of grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary.

Investigate – children apply these skills in a mini-write, from which teachers assess how well the children have learned the grammar and punctuation taught. At this stage the process can be still scaffolded for the children and support is provided by the teacher.

Invent -children spend time planning and producing quality written outcomes, for a specific purpose.

Specific time is given for editing and improving throughout the entire writing process. 

• Grammar, language, and punctuation skills are taught through analysis of the author’s use of effective vocabulary choices, language structures and writing style, and by using the core-text as a model during the writing process. Children are given opportunities to imitate the author’s style, reflect on why the writing is effective, then to practise and develop their own writing style using the skills they have learnt.
• All classrooms at Rectory Farm have an English Learning Wall, which provides scaffolds and models for children’s writing, including higher-order vocabulary, examples of a range of sentence types, along with models of the quality written outcome that the children are working towards.  The learning walls are updated continuously over the unit to support learning.
• To teach handwriting, we use Kinetic letters, which is progressive across school (see tab for handwriting)
• Spelling is taught explicitly using the platform Ed Shed. This is progressive and allows teachers to initially assess their children so that they can assign home learning tasks that are specific to them. We also use the weekly teaching sequence to explicitly teach Spelling using the PowerPoints provided for us on the platform. The outcomes of this are directly linked to the National Curriculum.

Oracy 

Oracy is integral to our daily teaching and curriculum. Learners are taught to: 

• Understand the value of thinking time.
• Discuss with a talk partner or trio, giving time to voice opinions. 
• Listen to, build on and challenge each 
• Learn and practice talk using new vocabulary.  
• Use sentence stems to support and clarify expectations.  

Vocabulary 

The direct teaching of Tier Two Vocabulary is taught through the reading lesson. This vocabulary is then displayed with ‘child friendly’ definitions and revisited throughout the week so that children begin to use new vocabulary with independence. At RFPS, we understand the importance of etymology and how this can help children to ‘unpick’ new words. This is explicitly modelled for the children. Tier 3 vocabulary is also taught through the broader curriculum. 

Early Years

• The EYFS literacy curriculum is planned to show progression over the year
• CLLD is planned across all areas of learning with oracy at the heart of the curriculum
• Whole class shared writing sessions take place daily where children are exposed to different writing purposes; this is followed up with small group guided writing sessions
• Children write once each week as an adult focus task as well daily opportunities within continuous and enhanced provision
• Our whole school curriculum goes beyond the expectation of the National Curriculum and the EYFS Development Matters
• The English curriculum is progressive, building on the teaching sequence within and across each year group
• Where relevant, connections are made across the curriculum, including opportunities to apply skills and knowledge across other subject areas

Making handwriting automatic 

To support the children’s handwriting from Foundation Stage to year 6 we use the Kinetic Letters handwriting programme. 

This is what is behind the Kinetic Letters ethos… 

Automaticity – Formation, orientation and placement of letters becomes automatic which frees up space in the working memory. 

Achievement – Fast, legible and fluent handwriting underpins success in every curriculum area. 

Confidence – Good handwriting creates a positive initial judgement. 

Creativity – When handwriting is automatic, the brain can concentrate on content. 

Reading – Writing and reading are reciprocal skills, so improvement in one, helps the other. 

Phonics and Spelling – legible handwriting means children can read and correct spelling. 

Our Kinetic letters handwriting approach also supports the motor skills area of spelling. Ensuring our children develop a fluent, efficient and legible handwriting style. Kinetic Letters script is taught from Reception onwards through handwriting sessions taught every day. This approach ensures children have a strong body position and are able to form and orientate letters correctly, which develops into an automatic, fluent, and joined style. 

Pupils who consistently show the Rectory Farm expectations for handwriting and presentation in all of their books can earn the highly coveted pen license enabling them to use a handwriting pen in their Topic books. Children are also encouraged to produce quality presentation pieces that include art and writing together throughout the year.