We have created our own Writing Cycle where structured daily lessons follow a particular process over two or three weeks. Each year group has selected culturally diverse key texts that they read and base their English lessons on (decolonisation of the curriculum). Lessons start with the Big Picture and children become aware of and discuss their final writing outcome. The cycle begins with immersion activities where children learn about the features required for their independent writing. After this, they complete a deconstruction of a text and shared writing in collaboration with the class teacher and the entire class. Once strategies have been modelled and discussed, pupils plan and write their own independent writing and edit at the end.“The quality of teaching reading is good. Pupils talked enthusiastically to inspectors about their love of reading. Pupils across the school make strong progress.”
“Overall, the teaching of writing is effective. Pupils are taught to write in a range of different styles. They use ambitious vocabulary when writing to capture the interest of the reader.”
Ofsted November 2018
Intent
At Havelock Primary School, we believe in every single pupil and the power of ‘Collective Teacher Efficacy.’ We have high expectations and ensure children are challenged to achieve their full potential to become happy life-long learners. We aim for our pupils to be fluent readers, creative writers, confident spellers and articulate speakers, who can transfer their English skills to other subjects within our broad and creative curriculum. Books and reading are at the heart of everything we do and we want our pupils to develop a love of reading. We use a range of quality texts in all year groups with various genres. Not only do we want our children to write grammatically correctly, we also encourage them to be creative and use their imagination to improve the composition and effect of their writing. They consider the impact and audience of their writing and use the appropriate register and tone. Vocabulary is therefore essential and is constantly discussed and analysed within the given context. We nurture and develop independent learners who can reflect upon their own word choices and phrases and edit accordingly.
Pupils at Havelock Primary School will leave Year 6:
- reading and writing with confidence, fluency and understanding;
- using a range of independent strategies to take responsibility for their own learning including self-monitoring and correcting their own errors;
- with a love of reading and a desire to read for enjoyment;
- with an interest in words and their meanings;
- developing a growing vocabulary in relation to grammatical terminology;
- understanding a range of text types, media types and genres;
- able to write in a variety of styles and forms appropriate to the context, purpose and audience;
- using their developing creativity, imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness;
- with neat cursive handwriting;
- being able to elaborate and clearly explain their understanding and ideas through discussion.