Writing

At Bywell Junior School we understand the importance of writing and giving each and every pupil the opportunity to thrive and progress as confident and capable writers. We are absolute in providing children with a rich writing diet, using high quality reading books and text extracts to inspire children to become established writers, which will enable them to gain an important lifelong skill.

We encourage our pupils to be reflective writers, to write, edit and redraft not only their own writing, but also paired and grouped work. Children are encouraged to push their own boundaries with writing; we look to nurture them as individual writers and support all stages of the writing process. The aim is to develop children’s writing independence and endurance throughout the school. We believe that children of all writing abilities have the potential to become confident writers. Writing lessons give children the opportunity to work collaboratively together, through positive partner talk in a calm and peaceful writing environment. Children at Bywell have a compassionate approach to writing; they listen to each other and share ideas in pairs or in small groups, working collaboratively whilst understanding the need to engage in high-quality discussions allowing them to develop their own sense of compassion and understanding.

At Bywell, a large focus is put on understanding the importance of exposing the children to a rich diet of vocabulary, through the use of carefully selected texts and through quality first teaching in all lessons. Displays are used to move children’s learning on and encourage them to experiment with the implementation of vocabulary not only relevant for the child’s age, but also vocabulary that is more advanced than the child’s age. Working wall displays not only capture children’s positive contributions, but also act as a tool for helping children’s writing advance.  Evidence shows that there is a close link between writing and reading and at Bywell we know that our children have an exposure to age-related texts which they can read both at school and at home. Children are given extensive opportunities to apply new vocabulary learnt in every subject.

At Bywell, we have high expectations of both grammar and spelling, not only in English, but throughout every subject that is taught. Children are given the opportunity to apply writing skills in a range of writing activities in these lessons; from sustained pieces to short and precise fact files. Grammar is deeply embedded in all lessons taught throughout the school and non-negotiable basic writing skills are a fundamental requirement in all pieces of writing across the school. Children who find writing more difficult are supported effectively by teaching assistants either 1-1 or in a small group.

• As a school we have now rolled out the Jane Considine approach to writing (The Write Stuff) across all 4 year groups (Year 6 began in September 2023).
• The Write Stuff, created by Jane Considine, is a system that will sharpen the teaching and learning of writing within the classroom. It is research informed and practically applies evidence for improving writing outcomes.
• The school will follow the rainbow streams for writing which include FANTASTICS, BOOMTASTICS and GRAMMARISTICS. These provide guidance for both teachers and pupils with a wealth of ways in which the children can showcase their flare and select a focus for deepen the moment.
• The school will follow the unit lesson plans and sequence of lessons from the Jane Considine Write Stuff.
• Writing units have been specifically chosen to ensure a broad writing coverage of the curriculum.
• Writing units will be slowed down giving children the opportunities to explore vocabulary and grammar elements in more depth during the teaching sequences.
• Children will be exposed to experience lessons, sentence stacking lessons and independent writing lessons which also include planning, writing, editing and redrafting.
• Children will record their work in books on a daily basis.
• Children will be encouraged to use CHOT (chat and jot) when orally discussing ideas within the classroom.
• Teaching sequences will be systematically built, with 3 learning chunks in each lesson. Each chunk will consist of an initiate, model and enable sequence.
• Writing will focus on plot points and positive and negative events.
• Children are encouraged to develop their own writing content and stamina through quality first teaching and the systematic approach of Jane Considine.
• Writing is now being assessed using the Jane Considine assessment which accompanies the ‘The Write Stuff’ writing scheme.
• Children will show endurance in their writing in all types of writing lessons including independent writing sessions.
• Children will have the opportunity to edit their work in a number of ways, including spelling and punctuation, rewriting and reimagining.
• There is also a focus on writing basics that are targeting across all year groups; basic punctuation needs to be accurate for children to work within specific year group expectations.
• We are following the Pen Pals handwriting scheme which is taught across all year groups; pen licenses are awarded by the head teacher for exemplar examples of children’s handwriting.
• The school feedback policy has been reviewed to make marking more precise and effective; daily work is marked using the agreed marking codes and margin marks are used for unaided pieces of writing.
• Writing prompts to be used to support children’s punctuation in English books. If children achieve 5 consecutive days, then the writing prompts are removed. If a child fails to use basic punctuation correctly after this, then the prompts are reintroduced.
• Year 6 teachers and writing lead attend moderation opportunities with peers.
• Inhouse moderation termly across all year groups.

• Book Scrutinies: I have undertaken two book scrutinies since the last review. The focus for these book looks was to look at basics and how they were being identified and addressed in the daily Sentence Stacking lessons and the content included of the writing. There had been a significant improvement in the children’s use of basics in day-to-day lessons and these were now being more regularly identified and addressed by teachers in all year groups. The content of writing was good and the children were demonstrating good understanding of the success criterias needed for each lesson. All year groups demonstrated clear progress in writing from earlier in the year.
• As a staff we have introduced ‘Basics’ writing flaps which the children stick into their books to make the children more aware of the minimum expectations required in every piece of writing. All children were given the flaps to begin with, and if they received a double tick for successfully achieving all the basics for 5 continuous days, then the flaps are no longer stuck into books. However, if the child then failed to achieve the basics on another day, then the following day they would start again with the flaps and the cycle would continue. I found during book looks that there was a significant improvement in the use of punctuation and children progressing away from the flaps generally maintained the accurate use of punctuation.
• The use of the Jane Considine writing assessment grids have been successful and staff are feeling even more confident using them. Staff have given feedback on the assessment sheets and feel that they link well with the units taught.

End of Year 6 Sat results:

• 74% – Writing EXS or better
• 08% – Writing GDS            
• 84% – SPAG EXS or better
• 35% – SPAG GDS

• In the Autumn term, staff are to evaluate the writing units from the previous year and look at which units have been successful and which units may need to be replaced.
• Staff now need to amend and adapt the writing units if they see fit (some writing units are too long and need to be edited to suit the needs of our children).
• Training to be given to the new members of the teaching team joining in September.
• Working party to be formed to look over the assessment sheets and make adjustments if needed.
• To review all staff understanding of a ‘greater depth’ writer and correlate National Curriculum expectations and those of the Jane Considine approach.

• In the Autumn term, staff are to evaluate the writing units from the previous year and look at which units have been successful and which units may need to be replaced.
• Staff now need to amend and adapt the writing units if they see fit (some writing units are too long and need to be edited to suit the needs of our children).
• Support given to new members of staff following the writing staff meeting in September.
• Working party to be formed to look over the assessment sheets and make adjustments if needed.
• To review all staff understanding of a ‘greater depth’ writer and correlate National Curriculum expectations and those of the Jane Considine approach following attending the training delivered by Jane Considine October 2023