Our School Vision

Our school is a community where each person is valued as a child of God. We are a Church of England school, inspired and guided by the life and teaching of Jesus. We work together to create a caring, friendly and safe school family, to enable the whole school community to flourish and each person reach their full God-given potential.

Pupils are empowered to develop the hope and perseverance necessary to engage the challenges of learning in the context of school and the wider world.

Teaching staff seek out every opportunity to ensure that all pupils flourish in Writing lessons, developing wisdom and creativity through an ambitious and broad curriculum that challenges expectations, deepens knowledge and develops skills.

Writing lessons are inclusive, so everyone is valued and respected – and tolerance and diversity are celebrated.

‘Every child has an enquiring mind about the world and their place in it.’

At Donnington Wood C of E Junior School, we believe that all children have the potential to become great writers, able to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others. Our aim is to inspire a love of writing through exposure to exciting, stimulating texts, resources and visual literacy that ensure the progressive development of knowledge and skills and an appreciation of our rich and varied language heritage.

Intent

· Develop a love of writing and take pride in their accomplishments.

· Acquire a wide vocabulary and understanding of grammar and structure.

· Write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style to suit a range of purposes and audiences.

· Recognise the importance of speaking and listening as a key tool for developing writing skills and being able to participate fully as a member of society.

· Develop a stamina for writing that is fluent and legible

Implementation

We will achieve this through:

· Using a more explicit ‘Talk for Writing’ approach starting September 2021. Through its multi-sensory and interactive teaching it enables children of all ages and abilities to learn to write a wide range of story/text types using various methods including:

· listening to and learning texts and stories;

· taking part in drama and role-play;

· drawing and story mapping;

· collecting words and language strategies

· building their working knowledge of grammar.

· Carefully chosen fiction and non-fiction texts, resources and visual literacy that will inspire and engage both boys and girls.

· Developing a competency in phonics, word/spelling structure and handwriting from the earliest opportunity.

· A clear sequence for progression, that incorporates and embeds the knowledge and skills as set out in the National Curriculum 2014.

· A clear planning sequence that is both achievable yet challenging, based on the immersion, imitation, innovation and invention model, (adapted to be Key Stage appropriate) that helps children to articulate, communicate and organise their ideas.

· Discrete teaching of relevant punctuation and grammar that can be independently embedded in an appropriate weekly writing task.

· Giving children the time to plan, draft, edit and improve their writing.

· Providing immediate feedback and guidance to move writing on.

· Discrete spelling and handwriting sessions.

· Allowing children the opportunity to publish their work for display

Impact

· More children will achieve age- related expectations and reach their full potential at the end of their cohort year.

· Evidence of work will show a balance of fiction and non-fiction writing using a variety of stimuli.

· High expectation that writing books will set the standard for quality across all other topics.

· Children will develop a keen interest in writing and will understand the impact that it has on their present and future.