Writing Intent
We strive to develop children’s writing skills by immersing them in high-quality, language rich and supportive environments which nurture and guide them to become independent at each stage of their primary school journey. We aim to provide opportunities for children to write for a variety of purposes and audiences whilst developing their own creative flair, grammatical knowledge and strategies for accurate spelling. By making links with reading and spoken language, we expect our pupils to be able to articulate their ideas, opinions, and thoughts with confidence through the written and spoken word. We want our children to see themselves as an author who takes pride in the work they create and who can make independent choices, apply their grammatical knowledge, edit and redraft their work with confidence and make creative language choices to make their work flourish. 

Writing Implementation
The Writing Curriculum
At St. Joseph’s, we believe in giving children the opportunity to write for a multitude of audiences and for a true purpose. We have planned a curriculum with distinct genre progression, allowing our children to have the opportunity to revisit and learn new skills.

As part of the English curriculum, the children will have two English exercise books: English – Writing, and English - GPS. English is taught, in some form, every day. We have a systematic long-term plan for the teaching of grammar throughout the school which is taught explicitly in dedicated grammar lessons and then applied in context through reading and writing lessons.

Within writing, we use high-quality literature, memorable experiences, trips, visitors and events to help our children write for authenticity and in purposeful ways. The breakdown of the expectations for each year group can be found in the long term plan for English, alongside a detailed progression in genre plan.

We follow these four main purposes of writing:

• Write to entertain
• Write to inform
• Write to persuade
• Write to discuss (UKS2)

We have a thorough writing process, taken from the EEF’s ​‘Improving Literacy In Key Stage 2’ guidance report, and this is broken down into 5 stages:

• Planning,
• Drafting,
• Revising (at an age appropriate level),
• Editing,
• Publishing (KS2).

Genre Progression

To ensure our children have the opportunity to write for a variety of audiences and purposes, we have developed a genre progression across our school. 

Grammar

We have a systematic long term plan for the teaching of grammar throughout the school. This is taught explicitly in dedicated Grammar lessons and then applied in context through reading and writing lessons.

Spelling

We use 'No-Nonsense Spelling' to teach children spelling rules and patterns in their year group. 

In Reception and Year 1, we use Essential Letters and Sounds to teach phonics. Within the scheme, there are 'Harder to Read and Spell Words' which don't follow reading and spelling rules which have been taught so far.

We also follow the National Curriculum and teach Common Exception Words (KS1) and the Statutory Word Lists (KS2). 

Please find below the word lists associated with each year group.