WRITING

What is our INTENT?

At Greave we teach the children tools to become creative and fluent writers and spellers with the skills and confidence to successfully apply them beyond the primary school classroom.  We also want the children to enjoy being creative with their writing as well developing their pride in presentation across all subjects.  As a way to enable this to happen, we intend to be creative ourselves with the way in which we teach writing, using drama and quality texts to ensure that all children are engaged and can make the best possible progress.  We also ensure that lessons are differentiated effectively and deploy support staff to gain the best possible outcomes for all children when writing.  In our writing lessons, we endeavour to link our learning to British values and PSHE through the stimulus that we use for our writing; we engage in debates and moral dilemmas.  All teaching staff are aware of the intent for our writing curriculum and have been involved in staff training; CPD throughout the year will continue to deepen staff’s understanding, then impacting on learning in the classroom.

 

How do we IMPLEMENT?

When planning our lessons, we use quality texts to engage children while exploring vocabulary to enhance their writing.  A consistent approach to teaching spelling and phonics is used from EYFS to Year 6 in order to develop confident spellers with a good knowledge of spelling strategies.  We also implement our school handwriting policy, with a cursive style, and maintain high expectations for writing and presentation across all subject areas. 

 

What will be the IMPACT?

By the end of the school year, we want children to be confident, creative and fluent writers with legible presentation.  We want children to understand skills and strategies to help with their spellings and know how to use language in the most effective way for purpose.  It is important for us to understand that the progress of the children should not be defined by hitting the next data point, rather they should be engaging with the curriculum that we have developed, which, in turn, will show progress.

 

A Narrative immersion- what is it?  

At Greave we have reignited the journey into immersive writing using a process called D.E.A.L (Drama Engagement Active Learning) to inspire, motivate and enthuse our pupils during the writing process. This way of learning begins with an evocative picture book that the children become fully immersed in through a range of drama strategies. This gives them ownership over their learning; it allows them to work collaboratively with their teaching staff as they step into an imagined world constructed by them. Our children are therefore actively engaged in the learning process as thinking, feeling and physical learners within a creative context, which only enhances their development. With rich stories at the heart of it, reading skills and behaviours are naturally developed as cross curricular links begin to emerge through themes from the books which are rooted in our core values.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                    A day of immersion with drama consultant Rebecca Bell: The meeting of an African tribe.

                                                                                                                                                                                                    Year 6 using conscience alley to decide whether Mr Kazam (the wizard) was guilty or not.

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Teacher and child in role: A meeting with the Heritage Council for the Land of Neverbelieve.

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