Writing at St John XXIII Catholic Primary School
At St John XXIII Catholic Primary, we are committed to providing your child with the highest quality education. We are thrilled to incorporate the Power of Reading scheme into our curriculum to enhance writing skills among our primary age students. This innovative program not only boosts reading comprehension but also significantly improves writing abilities, ensuring that our students are well-equipped for their educational journey ahead.
Intent
At St John XXIII, writing is at the heart of our curriculum. Guided by Pope Leo’s Maps of Hope, we support every child to grow as a compassionate, confident and responsible communicator. Through purposeful writing, children are encouraged to express themselves clearly, creatively and thoughtfully.
Our writing curriculum is carefully sequenced to build knowledge and skills over time. Children develop strong understanding of language, structure, and audience, and learn to write with clarity and precision. They explore a range of genres and styles, building confidence in planning, drafting, editing and improving their work.
We place strong emphasis on developing emotional literacy and self-expression through writing. Children learn to reflect on their ideas, experiences and perspectives, and to communicate them in meaningful and respectful ways. Through discussion, reflection and practical activities, pupils develop empathy, creativity and a sense of responsibility as writers.
We hold high expectations for all learners. Through inclusive teaching and targeted support, every child is enabled to succeed and feel valued. Our aim is for pupils to leave St John XXIII with the confidence, skills and ambition to write effectively and purposefully, ready for the next stage of their education and life.
Through writing, our pupils will:
- Communicate with confidence and clarity, expressing their thoughts and ideas effectively and listening to others with respect.
- Journey as resilient learners, using writing to explore, reflect and improve their work.
- Recognise their God-given dignity and potential, understanding that they are valued and have a voice.
- Step forward with ambition and purpose, using writing to contribute positively to their communities.
Implementation
We teach Writing as whole class lessons, so that all children have access to the age-related skills and knowledge contained in the National Curriculum.
We use the Power of Reading programme as the basis of our English writing work as we believe that the scheme provides a range of texts that motivate and inspire children. Pupils from Year 1 to Year 6 study six high quality Power of Reading texts that motivate and inspire children each academic year. Pupils study texts that help them to enrich their writing through extending their vocabulary and phrasing. These texts contribute to pupils’ love of reading and writing through the richness of language, interesting plotlines and character development. Based upon these texts, pupils write an extended piece of writing. We call this the Big Write. Pupils are given opportunities to participate in drama, spoken language activities and writing for a variety of purposes. Teachers demonstrate high quality modelling within each English lesson and encourage pupils to include key vocabulary (linked to their Topic), structure their work appropriately into coherent paragraphs and use the grammatical skills and punctuation taught at their year group level. Opportunities are planned for children to use knowledge from other subjects within their English writing and vice versa. As part of developing speech and language across the school we have a strong emphasis on developing oracy skills through vocabulary stem sentences and drama lessons.
During Power of Reading lessons, teachers make explicit references to genre features, as well as word and sentence level work within the context of writing. Pupils contribute to the class composition by sharing their ideas. This is also the time when pupils are given the opportunity to discuss, verbalise and refine ideas before committing to writing. The shared writing sessions, help pupils generate a list of features that they would expect to use. This can be used by teachers and pupils alike as one way of assessing pupils writing and their understanding of the purpose and organisation.
Spelling
Pupils are provided with spellings each week. Each spelling list provided follows a structured programme of spelling ‘word families’. We use the ‘Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check’ method of learning to spell. Pupils are tested on their spellings weekly. Our expectation is that pupils will then use these words/spellings correctly in subsequent written tasks.
Grammar
We use HeadStart Grammar and Punctuation scheme and grammar is taught weekly. We follow the requirements of the National Curriculum for each year group. This series is designed to make the important link between the various aspects of grammar/punctuation and real texts; this makes the learning of grammar and punctuation meaningful and exciting for children.
Handwriting
Pupils learn correct letter formation in Early Years through the Read, Write Inc. programme and we follow the Nelson Scheme for handwriting in KS1 and KS2.
Impact
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
In Class Feedback
We understand that feedback in linked to progress and has to be timely to make an impact. In class feedback is used to support teacher’s workload, ensure it is as immediate and timely and specific as possible, and leaves the teacher time to focus on individual identified needs. We use ‘hot marking,’ whereby the pupil receives immediate feedback and are able to respond to marking during the lesson.
Corrective Teaching/Summative Assessment
All marking in writing books follows the school’s marking and feedback policy. All teachers provide next steps during the writing process and this feedback may be delivered verbally (VF) or as written feedback. ‘Hot marking’ is encouraged whereby teachers mark work with the pupil and provide them with immediate feedback. Hot marking addresses any misconceptions during the lesson, however if a pupil has not met the learning question there is timely support so that they are able to continue on the learning journey with their peers. Teachers adapt their planning for the next lesson to ensure there is time to address these misconceptions. It may be addressed in the next lesson, by a Teaching Assistant or in small groups during the lesson. The misconceptions may also be addressed through in class marking, conferencing, and verbal feedback or with the use of mini plenaries.
Pre Teaching/Pre Assessment
All teachers must be aware of the pupil’s prior attainment. Through our ‘cold task,’ pre assessment (set before each POR text), we aim to pre-empt the difficulties for some pupils. We analyse the information and plan the learning according to individual needs and cohorts. The Pre Learning Assessments provide the starting points for learning. Where possible, the Teaching Assistants support teachers and complete pre-learning activities or activities in lessons which are tailored to address the learning gap. This might be re visiting vocabulary or basic skills needed to access the age related objective.
Teaching Assistants and Interventions
When we identify need, the Teaching Assistants deliver short, focused, interventions. The interventions are repeated over a week, either, daily or a specified number of times per week. The interventions are specific to the need and they are given until the misconceptions are addressed or the gap in learning is reduced.
Same day interventions are also used to pick up on misconceptions from the current days teaching and learning.
Partnership
Teachers engage parents through September welcome meetings. Fortnightly newsletters and Parent Consultation Days ensure an effective partnership to ensure children meet their age related expectations.
Moderation
Writing is moderated internally to ensure we make robust judgements, particularly on transfer between key stages. Teachers also take part in external moderation at a Local Authority and Deanery level. Every term, teachers meet to moderate writing and ensure that teacher assessments are accurate.
Formal Assessment Cycle
- KS1/KS2 SAT’s in May
- Year 1 Phonics screening in June
- Classroom monitor
- Big Write assessments – every half term
- HeadStart Grammar and Punctuation assessments – every half term
- Weekly spelling tests
- Writing is moderated by all staff and then Teacher Assessment agreed based on the child’s performance in class.
- EYFS is assessed and recorded using the Evidence Me programme. This is used to add photographs to the learning journeys of each child based on the EYFS objectives.
- Termly book monitoring
- Learning walks
- Pupil voice
School reports
School reports are issued at the end of the school year. Pupils are given a grade and targets for the following academic year for English.
The main intended impact of our delivery of Writing is that all pupils enjoy writing across a range of genres, can write for a range of purposes and audiences, and become confident and effective communicators. They will amass a varied vocabulary that they can use across the curriculum and can apply spelling rules and grammatical concepts in their work.
We also aim to ensure that our pupils are proud of their writing and have opportunity to see it on display and shared with others in the school and with their families.
Looking forward, we intend that by the end of Year 6 most children are meeting ARE and are ready for the secondary curriculum.
We hope that as pupils move on from us to further their education and learning that their creativity, passion for English and high aspirations travel with them and continue to grow.
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