Intent:

Our writing curriculum intends to cultivate a rich and deep understanding of the English language through the development of both written and spoken language. We aim to equip our children with the essential skills that will serve them well throughout their education and beyond. We place a significant emphasis on fostering a love for writing and empowering our students to express themselves creatively, communicate effectively, and nurture a lifelong passion for this area of learning.

In line with 2014 National Curriculum and beginning in EYFS, our curriculum is progressive and designed to equip pupils with the essential knowledge and skills necessary for effective, written communication. By exploring a diverse range of genres and text types, pupils develop a secure foundation in grammar, punctuation and vocabulary whilst seeing themselves and their experiences reflected in the texts they engage with.

Implementation:

At Birchfield, the writing curriculum is carefully designed to ensure a comprehensive development of writing skills and experiences. Through a progressive approach, we guide our pupils to enhance their writing proficiency and write for a range of purposes.

• Writing to Entertain
• Writing to Inform
• Writing to Explain
• Writing to Persuade
• Writing to Discuss

Central to this is the exposure to high-quality texts which serve as a foundation for developing strong writing skills across various genres. Through the exploration of a range of literary works, our students can expand their vocabulary whilst being taught to carefully consider their language choices and how they impact upon the overall quality of their work.

The writing curriculum ensures the children are given a clear context for writing and where possible is linked to our non-core subjects. This provides opportunities for cross-curricular learning and, by integrating writing tasks into subjects such as science, history, and geography, we aim to deepen students’ understanding of subject content while honing their writing abilities.

To effectively deliver this curriculum, we understand the importance of tailoring our planning to meet the individual needs of each pupil. Through effective, teacher modelling, we demonstrate a range of writing techniques whilst providing the students with valuable examples to emulate in their own work. This is done at the beginning of each unit, so the children are clear on the expectations for their own work.

Each unit of writing lasts between 2 to 3 weeks. During this time, the children are able to embed essential writing skills in a way that is progressive and follows a clear sequence. In both KS1 and KS2, pupils complete the full writing process before being encouraged to apply the skills they have learnt autonomously to produce an independent, extended piece. To allow for creativity and personal expression, this piece is usually in a different context or linked to a different curriculum area. Through this process, our students can demonstrate a range of skills, creativity, critical thinking, and linguistic precision.

Impact:

Our writing curriculum enables pupils to produce high-quality texts across genres, showcase a diverse range of skills, and adapt their writing to suit different audiences and purposes.

The impact of the curriculum is measured through:

• Regular, ongoing assessment of the children’s written work
• Monitoring by leaders through regular book scrutiny, learning walks, pupil data and pupil voice.
• Moderation against standardised materials
• Achievement in line with age-related expectations
• Readiness for the next stage in their learning