It is our aim at Bitham Brook Primary that we provide pupils with a high-quality education in English that will teach pupils to speak, read and write fluently so that they can communicate ideas effectively and express their thoughts, emotions and imagination to others. As part of this, we aim for pupils to develop an intrinsic joy of writing as they learn:

• to enjoy developing their writer’s voice/s;
• understand the power of the written word to express, influence and explain;
• to turn their ideas into an engaging narrative.

To enable this, we intend for all pupils to write widely and confidently across a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Therefore, the writing curriculum is sequenced across a wide range of genres and contexts, and structured to progressively build children’s knowledge, skills and understanding.  The National Curriculum is used as the foundation of our curriculum planning.

To ensure a sense of purpose, the curriculum provides a range of opportunities to practise and apply the writing skills that have been taught in a range of interesting contexts. To facilitate this, units of work are linked to and build upon high quality class reading books (with diverse cultural capital) and focus on different, specific types of writing within genre. Pupils are also given the opportunity to use their writing skills across the curriculum, for example, a chronological report in History or instructions for science experiment.

To support pupils’ ability to apply their skills effectively, they are challenged to adapt their language and style for different contexts, purposes and audiences. However, writing effectively in nearly all contexts and genre is a complex skill which involves many facets (composite knowledge). Therefore, to make these complex skills accessible, our plans for the curriculum aim to break them down into small (component) steps which are taught sequentially and then recombined to build pupils’ understanding and ability to perform complex writing skills. By adopting this approach, our curriculum aims to be inclusive and provide age appropriate access to virtually all pupils.

As part of this process, it is our intention for children to acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and punctuation and a sound knowledge of being able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they have learnt. These are all vital, fundamental components of writing.

In addition, we believe that all pupils should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, in part by developing a good, joined, handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school.

We also believe that all good writers refine and edit their writing over time. To develop independence, children are provided with a framework that highlights pertinent learning expectations. Each unit of work is communicated as a learning journey. Pupils are made aware of intended learning outcomes for the unit at the beginning of this journey. Within units of work, teachers will skilfully and insightfully plan sequences of lessons that build the component knowledge needed to write in the genre. For each step of the journey, teachers will provide pupils with success criteria. Pupils are encouraged to use these to reflect on their progress and to identify their own areas for improvement, editing their work effectively during and after the writing process.

This plan aims to set out the genres to be taught (which are complex composite skills) and much of the component knowledge needed to able to write effectively within these genre.