Writing
At Bickerton Holy Trinity CE Primary School, our goal is to equip children with the skills and knowledge they need to communicate confidently and effectively for a variety of purposes. We believe that strong writing skills are essential for success in both school and life, and are committed to helping every child, regardless of background, develop these abilities.
We teach writing following the Pathways to Write units of work.
Pathways to Write is a proven methodology build around units of work which develop vocabulary, reading and writing skills through the mastery approach. The units, which are used with pupils from EYFS to Year 6, link to high-quality texts to ensure engaging and purposeful English lessons. Effective teaching strategies to challenge Greater Depth writers are included and challenged within each unit of work.
The units of work ensure children cover the National Curriculum for English in its entirety for writing; and the progressive structure of the programme ensures children's learning develops through the introduction of new skills being taught and regular opportunities to revisit and develop existing skills.
Within Pathways to Write, planning and delivery of sessions uses the following sequence:
Gateway: This is an opportunity to hook the pupils into the context of learning and to assess previously taught mastery skills. A short writing task is set at the end of this session to assess the application of Gateway Skills (this is not attended to assess pupils on skills or genres that they have not been taught before). Where pupils are struggling to apply and use Gateway Keys, these are built into the planning of the unit to personalise and use for each class.
Pathway: In this section, the mastery skills are introduced with many opportunities along the way to practise and apply these skills in different writing tasks. The tasks use genres that the pupils will be most familiar with such as character or setting description, dialogue, diary entries, instructions, poetry and sentence work. This provides on-going evidence for writing assessment.
Writeaway: This final section of the sequence comprises of 4 sessions. It begins with sectioning and sequencing texts using a model. If the final outcome is narrative-based, this will usually be the text which has been read and for younger age groups, a shortened version to support re-telling will be included. If the outcome is a non-fiction text, then a model will be available to support. Within the Writeaway, children are encouraged to plan, write, check, edit, redraft and publish as required with the focus on applying the mastery skills that they have been taught.
Within and across these units, children are taught a range of writing skills, including:
Planning: Understanding different text types and planning both orally and in writing.
Structure: Writing in a clear and cohesive manner across various text formats.
Vocabulary: Using adventurous language, tailored to the audience.
Grammar: Constructing grammatically correct sentences.
Punctuation: Applying higher-level punctuation for specific effects.
Spelling: Using age-appropriate strategies to improve spelling.
Handwriting: Forming letters correctly according to the school’s handwriting policy.
Useful Links
Grammar: Helping at Home
· Grammar & punctuation at primary school | Oxford Owl
Writing Competition
Games
· Writing, English Games for 5-7 Years - Topmarks
Discrete Teaching of Handwriting
We place a great emphasis on the explicit teaching of handwriting across all year groups. Handwriting is taught daily, with a clear focus on direct instruction and modeling. Our aim is that by the end of Key Stage 2, all pupils will be able to write legibly, fluently, and at an increasing speed by:
Deciding which letter shapes to use and when to join specific letters
Selecting the most appropriate writing implement for different tasks
To support letter formation from the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), we incorporate ‘Read-Write-Inc’ phrases into our teaching.
Useful links
Handwriting: Helping at Home