Writing Curriculum Intent Statement 

Dignity, Community, Hope, Wisdom 

‘Journeying together with hope and aspiration’ 

At Gainsborough Parish School, we aim to produce writers who can communicate ideas and emotions for a wide range of audiences and purposes.  Through high quality class texts and engaging experiences, children are inspired to write imaginative, informative or persuasive texts.   We aim for children to have a wide range of vocabulary, which they can apply in writing and across the curriculum. We deploy a consistent approach to the teaching of writing across the school in order to build a writing community where handwriting, spelling, grammar, punctuation and editing are embedded.  Our carefully sequenced writing curriculum has been developed to enable pupils to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know in order to deepen levels of understanding and in turn, curricular success.  To support children in moving towards independent writing, we provide a stimulus which is then supported by a progressive learning journey through features, skills and drafting.  Children analyse the stimulus and author features as well as identifying purpose, audience and form.  The teaching of the knowledge and skills required for the genre of writing, including punctuation, grammar, language choices, structure and layout are some of the areas which may be explored and replicated by children. This will lead to experimentation of the skills in context. This part of the writing journey will be supported through lots of modelled writing, shared writing, guided writing and short burst writing.  An extended writing piece will be undertaken after the children have explored and gained all the skills necessary to  make their own controlled writing choices, focusing on a particular writing purpose. At this stage, children will draft, edit and assess their own work; they will also use peer editing and discussion to ensure children have every opportunity to write at their very best. Throughout the writing process, handwriting skills and practice are incorporated. Each week,  from Year 1 upwards, children are taught discreet sessions  to ensure children receive plenty of opportunity to practise and refine handwriting. Timely retrieval opportunities are carefully planned and scaffolded throughout our curriculum enabling children to strengthen and remember previously taught knowledge which improves fluent recall and independence. 

The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.

The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information  acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
• use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
• are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.