Writing
At Bushbury Lane Academy, we strive to help our children develop into articulate and imaginative communicators, who are well-equipped with the skills they need to become life-long learners; English learning is key in this.
We aim to ensure all of our children develop a genuine love of language and the written word, through a text-based approach. Our intentions in writing are for our children to: write for a range of purposes with an increasing awareness of the audience, purpose and context; to develop their knowledge and application of grammar, spelling and punctuation; to acquire a wealth of vocabulary and to see themselves as real writers as well as take increasing ownership over their own writing. Furthermore, we aspire for all our children at Bushbury to enjoy writing and to develop a lifelong passion for it.
Careful links are made across the curriculum to ensure that children’s English learning is relevant and meaningful: where possible linking our reading, writing and the Learning Adventure that is being taught together. We ensure that children develop an understanding of how widely writing is used in everyday life and, therefore, how important and useful the skills are that they are learning.
How is writing taught?
The children at Bushbury Lane Academy begin their writing journey with us in the Early Years through the teaching of RWI, which enables children to make links between their reading and ability to form letters and words correctly, using their phonetical spelling knowledge. (Please refer to the Phonics Intent statement for more information) Furthermore, our Early Years practitioners carefully embed writing opportunities into the children’s continuous provision as well as plan adult focused activities, where writing skills, linked to the Early Years Framework are taught explicitly.
Writing lessons for KS1 and KS2 take place daily and writing is taught through a text based approached. At the beginning of the writing journey, a high quality text is shared with the children, which where appropriate, links to their class text and Learning Adventure topic. Throughout the three week writing process, the children navigate through three linked weeks: Learning about the text, practicing writing and independent writing. At the end of the journey, children build up the knowledge, skills and vocabulary to be able to write their own ‘hot write piece’ linked to the chosen genre. Throughout the academic year, children are exposed to a range of different genres of writing with a balance of fiction and non-fiction.
Within writing lessons, teachers and teaching assistants target support and challenge for learners where necessary to enable all children to achieve their potential and make excellent progress. Key teaching pedagogies utilised in writing lessons include verbal and written modelling, targeted questioning and thinking out loud.
