At St Michael’s C of E Primary School, we believe that literacy skills have a significant impact upon self-esteem, motivation and aspirations for the future. Being literate enables our pupils to be proactive in their own learning and to articulate their thoughts.

 

Our Writing Curriculum

We aim to support the children to become confident and inspired writers through a wide range of high-quality activities and teaching methods. Through our writing curriculum, we aim to provide all pupils with the knowledge and skills needed for later success. Writing is a major part of the curriculum and along with reading, speaking and listening, we aim to make a significant contribution to the development of children as thinkers and learners. Here at St Michaels, we are dedicated to promoting creativity through the written word supported by the structured development of grammar and punctuation and transcription.

 

Throughout school, the children use Pathways to Write, also supported by Pathways to Spell, which is built around a variety of texts. This close relationship between reading and writing is important as we feel that it is necessary for our children to make meaningful connections between them. Children write in a range of different genres and styles with a clear purpose for their writing and an awareness of the audience for which they are writing. Children have opportunities to write in both fictional and non-fictional forms as well as formal and informal ways.

Pupils at St Michaels are supported by a range of imaginative starting points including visits, visual stimulus and events taking place in school or the wider community. Opportunities for high quality writing are also identified and developed across the wider curriculum. Integrating writing in such a meaningful and engaging way is central to continuing to raise pupil progress in writing and in promoting successful composition and enthusiastic and independent writers.

Teachers use a variety of approaches to ensure that all pupils achieve success including the use of explicit examples, guided practice and worked examples alongside structured writing frames, direct and indirect instruction and collaborative group work. Our aim is always to develop a purposeful curriculum to meet the needs of the whole school learning community.

Children and young people will demonstrate their progress in writing through the degree of independence they show, the organisation and quality of their ideas, their skills in spelling, punctuation and grammar, the match of their writing to the audience and the effectiveness of their use of language.

Our writing curriculum will also enable pupils to become fluent in grammar through using the Rising Stars Skill Builders which is sequenced to build knowledge and supports the revisiting of key components.

Link to National Curriculum: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335186/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_English_220714.pdf