At Everton Primary School, we believe that every child can become confident, independent writers, who write with curiosity, enthusiasm and creativity. We want our children to enjoy writing a wide range of text types, for a range of audiences and purposes and across all areas of the curriculum. We pride ourselves on providing the children at Everton Primary School with a wide range of opportunities and experiences to engage them, help them to develop a rich and varied vocabulary, share in cultural experiences and spark curiosity in every child. 

As a core subject in the National Curriculum, English has an integral place in our curriculum, as all learning is centered around the use, sharing and development of language. It is throughout a child’s primary education that the foundations of all aspects of English are laid. In the literate society in which we live, an ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in written word, and to read a wide range of different types of text is essential if children are to achieve their full potential throughout their school days and into their adult life. Our school views the acquisition of language and literacy skills to be of the utmost importance and therefore the teaching of all aspects of English will be given a high priority.

Intent

The children at Everton Primary school will learn to be confident and creative writers through an engaging, knowledge-rich curriculum. Our curriculum has been carefully designed to ensure that pupils enjoy writing and have a passion and enthusiasm for it. Our aim is to ensure that pupils write clearly, accurately and coherently; write in different styles and for different purposes and audiences; develop a wide vocabulary and a solid understanding of the grammar rules and terminology appropriate for their age group. Our curriculum has also been designed to ensure that pupils are able to express themselves creatively and to communicate effectively with others. We will encourage children show curiosity about new words, their meanings, and their origins, developing a growing and increasingly sophisticated vocabulary. 

Implementation

Teaching and Learning 

Becoming a successful writer and demonstrating successful learning in English is the product of knowledge and well-planned teaching. The staff at Everton Primary School support our children to be successful writers by instructing, explaining, clearly modelling and appropriately scaffolding learning, whilst using purposeful questioning and discussions to encourage the pupils to independently contribute to their work. 

Within English lessons, Teachers focus on different text types across the year and have a key text that is linked to their topic. Each unit builds upon the knowledge and understanding already known as well as developing new skills, vocabulary and writing techniques. Shared reading of the class text and guided writing provides the children with the opportunities to work together as a class unit, developing ideas, building on their knowledge and understanding and allowing the teacher to question and challenge them further. Staff differentiate teaching and learning to ensure every child is successful in their writing whilst also allowing every child to be individually challenged, children have the opportunity to take control of their own learning, within a guided and supported environment. The use of assessment for learning during lessons and post-teaching marking (see marking policy), enables teachers to further support the children at Everton Primary School by identifying areas for development so that appropriate assistance and possible interventions can be organised as and when necessary.

Curriculum Planning

To ensure consistency throughout school and a progressive approach to skills development, each unit of teaching in both key stage 1 and key stage 2 follows the same sequence of teaching. Although the pedagogical process is detailed for each lesson, teachers ultimately have autonomy over their own teaching. They can make adjustments where necessary to increase time spent on embedding skills or to include drama, speaking and listening or other activities to deepen understanding and further learning. Each stage of the learning process is evident in books, learning environments and planning.

Teachers ensure that, where possible, there are clear links between English and other areas of the Curriculum. Much of the English planning is text (visual or text) lead.

Spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPAG) is planned for in line with the year group objectives. Often the spelling, punctuation and grammar that is covered in writing lessons is specifically required for the text type that is being taught, the skills are contextualised as part of the unit. 

Units of writing follow this pattern of lessons:

Features- Identifying and learning the features of the text type they are learning. As a class you identify the features of the genre to understand the expectation when writing their own.

Grammar and Vocabulary- Contextualised grammar and punctuation lessons which are relevant to the genre being studied. New skills and overlearning of previously taught skills to consolidate prior learning. 

Shared/guided write- Working together as a class, group or in pairs to create a model that will be used when writing their own piece. This is an opportunity to better understand the features, key vocabulary and SPAG covered and address any misconceptions. 

Editing- Pupils write independently and redraft and edit.

The text type, audience, purpose and outcome is explicitly shared with the children and continuously referred back to throughout the unit.

We also use best work books to record final pieces from a unit of work all children have a Teacher Assessment Framework (TAF) or Writing Assessment Grid that contains writing objectives relevant to their current year group. Teachers are then able to assess best work against these to ensure children are making good progress and any areas for development are identified. 

Writing in EYFS

In our Early Years Foundation Stage unit, writing can be seen in both daily literacy sessions as well as throughout the provision within the classroom. To help the children become confident writers, we encourage and give a range of opportunities for the children to speak, listen and represent ideas in the activities we plan. Staff use Communication and Language, and Literacy in every part of the curriculum to help embed new vocabulary whilst modelling sentence structure, intonation and fluency. A range of text types are shared with the children from the Early Years Foundation Stage, and throughout school, to help broaden their understanding and knowledge of genre, use of language and writing for different purposes. The children in our Early Years Foundation Stage are immersed in an environment that is rich in print and possibilities for communication.

At Everton Primary School, we use the ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’ Phonics Scheme which was validated by the Department for Education (DfE) in December 2021. Children in our Early Years Foundation Stage have daily phonics sessions that follow the scheme. From the very first session, children have a daily opportunity to practise their letter formation which quickly builds to segmenting for spelling and then sentence writing. 

All seven areas of learning within the EYFS framework are equally weighted and Writing falls within Communication and Language, Literacy, Physical Development and Expressive Arts and Design. From early mark making to sentence writing the children have independent and adult led opportunities to write throughout the day and across the classroom. Writing and mark making is encouraged through play and exploration of the provision within the EYFS unit. Our continuous provision is planned to ensure all areas of learning are covered and that the children have opportunities to build on knowledge, understanding and practise skills they have learnt both indoors and outdoors. We give all children the opportunity to respond to adults and to each other, to listen carefully, and to practise and extend their range of vocabulary and communication skills. They have the opportunity to explore, enjoy, learn about, and use words to support their play and learning.

Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar

We believe that spelling has a direct impact on progress in all of the areas of the curriculum and is crucial to developing a child's confidence, motivation and self-esteem. We provide children with a range of spelling strategies throughout school which cater for different learning styles. Early spelling is taught through phonics with children in our Early Years and Year 1 accessing the validated scheme ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’. As children move into Year 2 the emphasis shifts to teaching spelling strategies, conventions, and rules to build upon the children’s established phonics knowledge.

In KS1 and KS2, as well as teaching spelling, punctuation and grammar as part of a unit of work, we also teach these as discrete lessons. We use daily activities to embed and practise grammar skills. We plan in for at least 3 SPAG lessons a week where there is a key skill or rule that is focussed on for the week. Following on from phonics lessons we know the importance of children being taught a range of strategies to enable them to tackle the spelling of unfamiliar words. We always encourage the children to attempt to spell words they are not sure of, to enable them to practise the strategies they have been taught.

We encourage children throughout school to become independent spellers by; having a store of words they can spell automatically- this starts in the Early Years with Common Exception Words; being able to segment words - this is a skill that is taught through the use of ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’ and further developed through the teaching of spelling rules; being able to hear syllables in words- this is used as another tool to unpick a word into decodable chunks; making links between the meaning of words and their spelling; working out spelling rules for themselves and using word banks and dictionaries.

Pupils will learn the spellings from their own year group and any additional support to a child’s spelling needs will be met through personalised in-class support and intervention.

Handwriting

At Everton Primary School, we are very proud of our pupils' handwriting and take particular care in our cursive handwriting style. We use Letter-join’s online handwriting resource and progression as the basis of our handwriting policy as it covers all the requirements of the Early Years Framework and the National Curriculum and builds fluency and stamina for writing. The children can access Letter-join both in school and at home which reinforces letter and number formations taught at each phase and the phonics and the statutory spellings and grammar for all year groups.

Children use letter-join from year 1 onwards as initial letter formation is taught through ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Forming and joining cursive letters neatly and accurately can be a challenge for some children at first, particularly for those who are left handed, as their hand/arm covers the graphemes written and those who have reduced fine or gross motor skills, however, with targeted support and regular and repeated practise, all children can develop a neat and consistent handwriting style. Fluent cursive handwriting supports spelling, stamina for writing and reduces cognitive overload when writing across the curriculum.

Impact

When children leave Everton Primary School, we want them to be confident, independent learners. We aim for children to be enthusiastic about everything they can do and ambitious with what they want to achieve, we want them to show resilience by using tools and techniques that they have developed through their time with us to solve problems in all areas of their life. If children can apply these skills to their writing then they can experience success in all areas of their learning. Children will leave Everton Primary School knowing a range of text types, their features and how to appropriately plan, format and write their own version. They will take pride in the presentation of their work and have ownership over their work to ensure that the content reflects the beautifully presented writing. Most importantly, they will enjoy writing for a range of purposes and audiences.

Assessment and Recording 

Assessment in Early Years Foundation Stage 

Regular assessments of children’s learning are made and this information is used to ensure that future planning reflects identified needs. Assessments are used to ensure that we support and extend children in their learning, identifying areas in which we can support children by setting challenging but achievable targets. 

Within the first six weeks of starting school, children are assessed using the STA Reception Baseline Assessment materials and this data is submitted nationally. In addition, children are assessed against the development matters framework for both 3 and 4 year olds for our nursery children and the reception statements. Assessments are uploaded half termly to ScholarPack to ensure that any areas for development are identified and all areas of learning are covered. In the summer term, assessments are made against the Early Learning Goals for the reception children and submitted nationally. This summative assessment is shared with the Year 1 class teacher and with parents. 

Children's writing and mark making is recorded in Literacy books which gives a clear view of the progress they make over their time in our Early Years Foundation Stage unit. Recording and documenting children's learning takes a number of different forms and gives a rounded picture of children's progress and achievements within the Early Years Foundation Stage. Children are assessed formally and informally during child initiated and adult directed activities, and observations, sometimes supported with photographs and video clips of spontaneous and significant moments which are posted on Class Dojo and saved into children’s individual portfolio on Class Dojo.

Parents receive a formal report at the end of their child's time in Reception and this reflects their child's progress and attainment.

Formative assessment 

Formative assessment, carried out by the class teacher, is an integral part of their role and is used on a daily/weekly basis to inform future planning. It involves identifying children’s progress against teaching objectives, determining what a child has already achieved and moving them on to the next stage of learning. This formative assessment is based upon the 2014 National Curriculum objectives for Writing. Formative assessments are made on a daily basis within class, judged against oral responses made by the children, writing responses and work produced in lessons. 

Summative assessment 

All summative assessments for reading, writing, maths and SPAG are recorded on ScholarPack. Year 2 and Year 6 children take part in end of key stage assessments (SATs and teacher assessments). Throughout the year, the use of teacher assessment frameworks for Year 2 and Year 6 support staff in their summative assessments of writing. We also meet as a whole school and within the local family of schools to support each other by moderating writing to ensure a consistent approach to assessment. 

End of year attainment targets are agreed and set for each child in reading, writing and maths for the end of the year by the class teacher and team leaders in September. Each child’s targets are shared with their parents at parents’ evening and in end of year reports.

Monitoring and Evaluation

We aim to mark work consistently throughout the school and where appropriate we encourage the children to self-correct during the redrafting process. Success criteria are used by pupils and teachers to move learning forward.

Writing and English is evaluated using the following criteria: 

- The literary environment through the working wall – e.g. word banks, spellings interactive displays including the display of shared writing, group investigations, class charts of spelling strategies and grammar terminology.

- Year 2 & 6 TAF and whole school TAF documentation.

- Data analysis, ScholarPack, phonics tracker.

- Work scrutiny and moderation by school staff within school and across our family of schools.

- Classroom observation and feedback.

- Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 SAT result analysis, FSP scores, phonics screen scores.

- Book looks by the English co-ordinator.