Writing

Intent

We aim to foster a love of the English language through reading, writing and the spoken word. We recognise that words are powerful tools and being able to write is essential for children to communicate their thoughts and ideas in a clear and structured way across the whole primary curriculum. At Brunel Field, we celebrate creativity and strive to capture the imaginations of the children we teach through exposure to rich language from a broad range of carefully considered texts, genres and learning experiences. With every writing experience, we present the children with purposeful and pleasurable opportunities and real audiences. At Brunel Field Primary School, we are determined that every pupil will learn to write with fluency to communicate their ideas effectively and establish themselves as an ‘author’.

Implementation

As children journey through the school, they are encouraged to express their ideas clearly and listen to others. Oracy is used as a precursor to the written word and exposes them to new vocabulary and a variety of sentence structures. Children are exposed to high quality texts (including a wide range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry) and are given meaningful audiences for their writing. Enquiry launch days, learning through play, start with art, trips and visitors are used both to spark children’s interest in the enquiry they are learning about and provide them with rich and real experiences that they can then apply to written tasks. Whole class, group and paired talk are used to support composition and as the children progress through the school, they are encouraged to think like an author by mastering editing and improving skills. Throughout the primary curriculum we have adopted a ‘purpose for writing’ approach which is designed to enable children to master the language and written skills required to write successfully for the following purposes: to entertain, to inform, to persuade and to discuss. Each term is dedicated to a single purpose to allow children to fully explore and practise its key features and text types. As the children progress through school, it is our aim that they are increasingly confident in the application of each of these features in their own writing.