Intent

At Knowle Park, we provide children with opportunities to study a range of texts which will support their writing. We recognise the importance of the link between reading and writing and explore this with children.

By the time children leave Knowle Park, we would like them to have a love for writing and to have a clear understanding of different types of writing for different purposes and audiences. We equip them with the tools to use a range of skills in their writing and consider carefully the effect on the audience they are writing for. We also provide opportunities for planning and drafting as well as editing and polishing work. On occasions, this is done with peers so children learn from each other and from each other’s mistakes. We also feel it is important for our children to share their work so opportunities for publishing and performing are planned in.

We immerse our children in a language rich, creative English curriculum which develops a love of reading, creative writing and purposeful speaking and listening. We provide children with opportunities to learn and study texts from a diverse range of authors throughout our whole school curriculum. Reading across the curriculum is a way in which we help children to build on their fluency and their comprehension, which also supports their writing. We recognise the importance of the link between reading and writing and explore this with children.

At Knowle Park we feel it is our duty to unlock the door to a lifelong love of literature and to provide children with the tools to develop a critical eye and an ability to write, and express themselves, independently, across a range of genres and for a range of purposes. At Knowle Park, we celebrate mistakes.  Children are encouraged to scan their writing for errors and are taught to edit, which becomes part of their daily practice.  We understand that letting children learn from their mistakes helps build resilience and is essential in raising confident, capable, happy, and successful people as well as writers.

Implementation

We use a 5-phase approach to writing which increases the children’s cultural capital, exposing them to a rich variety of high-quality and diverse materials, enabling them to develop their critical thinking and oracy as well as writing skills.

We believe that while providing children with a love and appreciation of writing, it is also our responsibility and duty to ensure all children leave us with the fundamental skills to enable them to thrive in modern society.

While keeping a love of literature at the centre of our curriculum, this approach allows plenty of opportunity to identify and address gaps in prior learning while at the same time teaching new skills.

A three-week unit looks like this:

With the exception of poetry, most units take place over three weeks and are broken down as follows.

Each daily lesson contains a 10/15-minute, active SPaG activity based on summative and formative assessment— introducing, reviewing or practicing a key skill in an engaging, memorable way. Lots of short burst writing activities are provided throughout the unit and a weekly ‘response write’ is carried out based on the stimulus provided but away from the genre being covered. An example of this might be a diary entry or a letter home from a character within a narrative unit.

Impact

The children at KPPS will:

• Demonstrate that they can apply the taught skis across a range of genres independently.
• They are able to express and articulate themselves and the world around them.
• They will have the passion and enthusiasm for writing which is evident in their work, including opportunities where they regularly apply their skills creatively and expressively.
• They will perceive themselves as writers and not just children who write, demonstrating a willingness to, and an awareness of how to, improve their writing.
• They will be motivated to write for a range of purposes and be equipped with the necessary skills to do so effectively.
• They will be inspired and influenced by a diverse range of quality texts and authors, and can draw upon these to develop their own writing.