Writing
Writing at Westlands…
At Westlands, we are passionate about developing our children as writers from the very beginning. Learning to write is a complex process that needs careful and deliberate planning at each step; the two key strands of composition and transcription need to progress hand in hand. We aim for all our children to develop a strong writer’s voice that they can adapt for a whole range of purposes across the curriculum. It is our intention to ensure that by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to write with fluency, wide vocabulary and a clear understanding of both the audience and the text type they are creating. We believe the journey starts and continues by exposing children to a wide range of texts that are central to our curriculum, with oracy used effectively to develop this writer’s voice as children progress.
Having a real audience to write for is important, so opportunities for this are planned across the English curriculum as well as other curriculum areas. Each year group creates and leads a showcase in the summer term for parents and visitors to demonstrate and explain their learning and their achievements.
Word building is developed through a rigorous and structured systematic phonics programme (Sounds Write) in EYFS and Year 1; this strong foundation underpins the approach to spelling from Year 2 up to Year 6. We strive to give children in all year groups the opportunity to explore language structures and vocabulary through a range of rich texts, linked to our themes and beyond, with core texts at the centre to help support their growing knowledge and skills for composition.
Our curriculum is structured to give children age-appropriate end of unit writing outcomes that have a complexity that does not impede their writing, and therefore allows them to use the vocabulary and sentence or text structures that they have practised and developed over the sequence of learning. Outcomes in English often reflect learning in other subjects, as well as celebrating English in its own right.
The core texts that are central to our English curriculum and writing outcomes are chosen carefully to give children a wide range of writing opportunities over time. The complexity of the texts themselves and the associated writing outcomes increase over the terms, culminating in Year 6 with tasks that incorporate the wide range of independent writing knowledge and skills that pupils have developed over their time at our school.
Handwriting is taught through the ‘Letterjoin’ programme and a cursive script in introduced once children have the fine motor skills to be able to succeed. Presentation of written work is a focus across all curriculum subjects, with every child creating a folder of ‘writing progress’ that is displayed in each classroom on the ‘Progress Wall’. These files follow up through the school and demonstrate the pride and importance that both pupils and adults have for writing. 
Inspiring our children to be writers is key to our success, and giving them the skills and knowledge to be confident is central to both our ethos and our curriculum.
