Writing

Intent: At William Levick, we aim develop children’s ability to communicate effectively through written language. The intent is to equip students with the necessary skills and knowledge to become competent and confident writers, enabling them to express themselves creatively and effectively throughout their academic journey and beyond.

Impact: Through a comprehensive approach to teaching writing, children will develop strong foundations in literacy, empowering them transfer these skills to other subjects. By fostering a love for writing and nurturing their creativity, students will become active and engaged learners, capable of expressing their thoughts and ideas with clarity and precision. The impact of this teaching approach will be evident in the improved quality of written work, increased confidence in writing tasks, and enhanced critical thinking and analytical skills.

Implementation: Teaching writing at William Levick follows the sequence of key steps:

IMMERSE: In this first stage, children fully immerse in vocabulary, facts, images and experiences for them to feel they have the background knowledge to succeed, through exciting and stimulating activities that make our pupils want to write and explore.

ANALYSE: At this stage there is an opportunity for children to deconstruct text, looking at both the SPAG features of a specific text type but also the purpose, language and audience within the text. This will facilitate discussions and provide models to deepen children’s understanding of effective writing techniques.

SKILL: This stage explicitly teaches writing skills, such as grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and vocabulary. Teachers use engaging activities to reinforce learning. Learning is differentiated to cater to individual needs, providing additional support or extension tasks as required.

PLAN: Children will then plan their writing effectively, including various planning strategies, such as storyboards, story mountains and flowcharts. Like other stages, this will be modelled and children will be encouraged to consider the purpose, audience, and structure of their writing before proceeding.

WRITE: At this stage children will practice writing across different genres and styles. There is a scaffold the writing process through shared writing experiences and independent writing tasks. Children will be encouraged to apply the writing skills and techniques learned during the previous steps, while fostering creativity and originality.

REVIEW: Children will be taught the importance of self-review and peer feedback in improving their writing, using success criteria and checklists to evaluate their work against specific criteria. Children will be provided with constructive feedback to allow them to make improvements to their writing.

By following this teaching sequence, students will be guided through a holistic approach to writing that combines immersion in texts, critical analysis, explicit teaching of skills, effective planning, and regular opportunities for independent writing and review. Through consistent implementation of these steps, children will develop the necessary skills and confidence to become proficient and expressive writers, equipped for success in their academic and personal lives. Our curriculum map for writing can be found here and further details about writing in our Foundation Stage can be found here.