Writing

Writing at Holy Trinity is used for children to express themselves, communicate with others and demonstrate the skills they have acquired within a unit of work. Mrs Coxon is responsible for this subject in school.

What?

At Holy Trinity, we believe that writing is a personal, expressive and vital skill, which we aim to promote across all areas of our curriculum. We desire our children to become eager writers through inspiring and exciting resources that they can relate to, enjoy and develop their individual love for writing. Our goal is for children to engage with challenging texts from a range of authors, cultures and times, using a wide range of vocabulary effectively in their writing and also their speaking and listening. Our children gain a true understanding that Writing has an important and prevalent place in the world we live in, and that all pieces of writing are written for a purpose (fiction and non-fiction). Therefore, our children will be confident in writing independently for a range of purposes and audiences, choosing the appropriate style required. This will enable our children to develop a secure knowledge of grammatical conventions, phonics and spelling patterns, and apply them, not only in writing lessons, but also across the curriculum. They review and edit their own writing and understand how they can reflect on what they have written; this is so our children see writing as a process. The children use proof reading at all stages of the writing process. Pupils review their writing against identified success criteria and check for errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar. Alongside this, we want our children to develop effective handwriting to ensure fluency and speed as they grow as writers, developing a handwriting script that they are proud of.

 

How?

Within each year group, the teaching and learning of writing follows a consistent process and is based on books by well-known authors, which model the skills and compositional styles of writing role models. The children are given the time to immerse themselves in the story, getting to know the characters and the format, audience and purpose of the text. Using carefully selected texts ensures that our children are exposed to and use a wide range of vocabulary correctly and confidently in their writing and in their speaking. Talk and the development of oracy skills in writing is key, ensuring all children feel confident to express and articulate themselves clearly, develop in their range of vocabulary, practise their ideas aloud and edit before recording them. Grammar is also an integral part of writing and we endeavour to support all children in the mastery of Standard English. This is achieved through a variety of interactive strategies, games and drama to engage all types of learners. The aims of the National Curriculum are taught and embedded across all writing lessons, as well as the wider curriculum. We promote cross-curricular writing so that the children have the opportunity to use a wider range of vocabulary and apply the skills they have acquired from their writing lessons. Writing units of work are taught following the outlined Holy Trinity Writing Cycle, which typically spans three weeks:

• Hook lesson and deconstruction of a WAGOLL [What A Good One Looks Like] – Learning experiences may include exploring key features of the genre, sharing the audience and purpose of the writing that the children will create, generating initial ideas, discussing ideas with peers and de-constructing a model text, evaluating how the model text can help in the innovation of their own texts and discussing the compositional features it displays that are suited to the audience and purpose of the text
• One lesson each week is focused on the spelling rule focus for that week and also the development and maintenance of a neat (and, from Year 2 upwards, joined) handwriting style.
• One shorter lesson each week is dedicated to dictation or spelling retrieval practice and handwriting to further practise transcriptional aspects of writing
• Skill-based lessons [focus dependent on purpose and audience of text]. Children are taught particular skills which may be related to vocabulary, grammar and/ or punctuation. They are given time to practise this skill collaboratively and independently at sentence-level. They then apply the skills they have learned when they craft their independent paragraphs related to the texts they are building up to drafting as part of their extended writing.
• Hot Write [planning and drafting for an audience and specific purpose]
• Editing and publishing [using specific techniques to edit and improve the compositional and/ or transcriptional aspects of their text]

This process is adaptable and provides purposeful opportunities for reading, writing, speaking and listening.

At Holy Trinity, we believe that good presentation skills are vital, as we want our children to have a sense of pride in valuing their own work, and for others to do the same. To support the teaching of handwriting at Holy Trinity, we use a consistent whole-school scheme: Nelson Handwriting. It introduces cursive handwriting in step-by-step stages from Reception to Year Six. By introducing and teaching handwriting consistently from an early age, this enables our children to be free to concentrate on their composition, spelling and grammar, rather than the mechanics of handwriting. The children are also given the opportunity to use devices to publish and present their work in a variety of formats for different audiences to see. To further promote the love of writing, there are a variety of opportunities where children are able to demonstrate and celebrate their skills and love for writing. The children share their writing to other classes, in Phase Assemblies as well as taking part in different competitions through the year on poetry and creative writing.

 

So?

We want our children to have an understanding that writing has a real purpose, and that word choice and style can bring about change. We have recognised the importance of fostering a culture where they take pride in their writing, confidently being able to change their language and style for a range of purposes and audiences. Through select book choices and modelling from staff, children are confident in the art of speaking and listening, being able to communicate to others and reflect on their own learning. At Holy Trinity, we develop writers who enjoy taking risks, are confident in sharing their ideas and love discussing their own writing with others. Our children develop a secure acquisition of writing skills throughout the primary curriculum, giving them the tools they need to participate fully as a member of the society we live in today.

htcps whole school overview english 2024 2025.pdf