'English is the language of the future…the most important tool you’ll ever need, no matter what career you choose. You have the right to English. Make it your right!' Benjamin Zephaniah

Intent

At Aston Clinton, we understand that children who learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are at an advantage when continuing their education and further beyond into the workplace and community.

We intend for our children to be effective communicators; attentive listeners; confident speakers; and grammatically accurate writers.

Our English curriculum offers a wide variety of opportunities to explore and practise both spoken and written language through our carefully designed writing journey, which has adapted Jane Considine's approach 'The Write Stuff' and Pie Corbett ‘Talk4Writing’. Our lessons provide pupils with the skills they require to successfully communicate their thoughts, ideas and emotions for a range of audiences and purposes. At the heart of this curriculum are high quality books and a range of stimuli, which have been selected by our leaders and teachers to inspire and engage children, whilst equipping them with the knowledge of the wider world. Alongside this, we use the No Nonsense Spelling in Key Stage 2 as this is a supportive, structured and progressive sequence of lessons. In Key Stage 1, Reception and Year 1 develop their phonetical knowledge by following Little Wandle Phonics and Year 2 follow Little Wandle Spelling.

Implementation

At Aston Clinton, we ensure that all children see themselves as a writer. We have carefully created a progressive writing journey from Reception through to Year 6. It brings clarity to the mechanics of writing and provides clear systems through which to focus the writer’s attention. We have structured units of work into a long-term plan that links to our reading scheme.  We aspire to build children's love of reading and writing through the exposure of high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

Each unit begins with a model text and a series of supportive writing lessons that are used to develop pupils’ understanding of grammar, syntax and vocabulary. These provide a high level of cognitive support so that the complexity of learning at this stage is scaffolded for success. These lessons use the three zones of writing (FANTASTIC, GRAMMARISTIC and BOOMTASTIC) to provide a consistent whole school systematic approach to writing composition. At appropriate times, ‘experience lessons’ are used to provide structured opportunities for vocabulary development, drama, experiential learning or research so that pupils’ understanding of the topic or fictional situation is deepened. Following this, a separate series of independent writing lessons takes pupils from the planning stage to the development of a final written piece.

Further information about the three zones of writing

• Jane explains the 'FANTASTICS'

The Fantastics offer 9 lenses with which to structure ideas and target children’s thinking. This supports children in developing variety in their writing by focussing on the vocabulary used, initiating ideas, provoking thoughts and igniting imaginations.  

The Grammaristics focus on the importance of accurate grammar where tools are taught and used immediately to help children develop fascination around language so that they can manipulate and carefully structure words into sentences

The Boomtastics focus on the art of writing, using a range of literary devices and techniques to make careful choices, playing with language to add flair to our writing and achieve various intentional impacts on our reader, painting vivid pictures through our word choices.

The Fantastics offer 9 lenses with which to structure ideas and target children’s thinking. This supports children in developing variety in their writing by focussing on the vocabulary used, initiating ideas, provoking thoughts and igniting imaginations.   

The Grammaristics focus on the importance of accurate grammqr where tools are taught and used immediately to help children develop fascination around language so that they can manipulate and carefully structure words into sentences 

The Boomtastics focus on the art of writing, using a range of literary devices and techniques to make careful choices, playing with language to add flair to our writing and achieve various intentional impacts on our reader, painting vivid pictures through our word choices.

Acquisition of language is of vital importance to us at Aston Clinton and throughout writing lessons we aim to support children in widening their vocabulary, accessing language beyond that that they may use naturally. We achieve this through techniques such as ‘Picture Power’, ‘Shades of Meaning’ and focussing on the sentences.

Aston Clinton’s Writing Journey

In Reception, children begin to orally tell stories using the Tales Toolkit. In Autumn term, the teacher models telling a story and they will create one as a group. In Spring term, children will orally tell their story to their teacher, who records this. To help generate their ideas, the children use pictures that they have selected and write labels using their phonetical knowledge. In Summer term, the children will begin to write a simple sentence and continue to orally tell their story to the teacher.

Year 1’s writing journey begins with a hook and moves to Phase 2 – Build-it Up.

Year 2 to Year 6 follow all three phases.

Hook an activity to get the children engaged in the subject

Phase 1 Understand

Introduction to text type with a high-quality example - We will story-map the example text to develop our understanding of cohesion and enhance our oracy by retelling the story-map at the start of each lesson. We will look at features within the genre including which writing techniques are best suited and why with focus on purpose and audience

Deepening Understanding – This is an opportunity for the children to use drama activities to enhance their understanding of the text, this could be understanding a character’s feelings or morals, or developing their understanding of sequencing.

Phase 2 Build-it Up

First Skill of the learning journey This is related to our long-term progression document, created in line with the National Curriculum.

Second skill of the learning journey (applicable to Key Stage 2)

The first and second skill will be taught and shown how to apply within a sentence structure, building on cohesion. This is our supportive writing – a scaffolding approach to enable the children to write.

Consolidation of Skills - a short writing task to consolidate use of the two taught skills, this is an opportunity for the children to work collaboratively.

Teaching editing (flexible to be moved to the end of an independent write)

Children are given the opportunity to re-write an example which is not to a high standard, this should include misconceptions to support the children in identifying how they will use those skills correctly in their future writing.

Phase 3 Create

Planning stage - Children will generate a success criterion for the class and plan their piece of writing based on the stimulus.

Independent write – The opportunity to apply the skills independently.

Self and peer assess – Children will refer to their generated success criteria and evaluate their own work and the work of their peers.

Edit and improve using self and peer feedback, they will edit their work using annotations, flaps, or a footnote system

Redraft (optional - for a purpose)

Impact

Children will be respected as an individual writer, provided with regular opportunities to make individual choices and encouraged to develop their own creativity. Regular practice of key writing skills will provide children with the confidence to apply these in a range of independent situations whereby they have the chance to show what they have internalised. The range of writing experiences we provide will enable all children to alter their long term memory and thus know more, remember more and be able to do more as writers. 

Pupil Voice

Dexter (Year 6), "I feel supported in my writing all the time and the learning chunks really help me organise my writing"

Handwriting

At Aston Clinton Primary School, we teach 'writing' right from the start.   We use the 'Letter Join' Handwriting Scheme; this supports children to develop the correct letter formation and accurate joining of handwriting.  

In the Early Years, we align the teaching of handwriting to our phonics programme: Little Wandle.  

By the end of Year 6, we want our children to have developed an effective cursive script as a way of effective written communication. They will be able to write fluently at speed so that they can communicate through their writing.

As with any skill, handwriting develops more rapidly with regular practice. Below are a selection of resources which you can download and use to develop your child's handwriting at home. Please speak with your child's class teacher if you have any questions about the resources, how to use them effectively or to discuss your child's handwriting. 

For more details about your child's learning, please use the following link to the year group learning pages.