At St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, we believe that the ability to write with confidence and accuracy is an essential life skill. Our aim is that children become confident, able, independent writers who enjoy and understand the structure, purpose and forms of writing and can apply these skills to adapt their writing for different audiences. Children will be able to express themselves in a variety of different ways using their knowledge of standard English, spelling, punctuation and grammar and clear handwriting. This allows their ideas to be recorded successfully and their writing to flow.

Our thematic approach to teaching and learning provides a range of writing opportunities; as we believe, that for children to see themselves as successful writers, they need to be involved in writing for a real purpose and for different audiences. We encourage talk for writing where children orally rehearse, compose and discuss their ideas before writing them down. Teachers model writing with children to demonstrate how to apply new knowledge and skills. Children are immersed in high-quality texts to stimulate writing and develop a rich vocabulary. By experiencing a range of texts and genres, children develop an awareness of the author’s intentions; this underpins their ability to write for effect with an awareness of the reader.

Children will cover a range of different types of writing from instructions to story writing throughout each year. Each term they will delve into specific forms of writing, such as letters, newspaper reports, persuasive texts. Giving the children time to explore a variety of example text through visualisation, role play and class discussion, deepens their knowledge and understanding. Next, they experience creating and experimenting with the text, learning how small adjustments and edits can have a huge impact on their work. Lastly, they gather together all the knowledge and experience they have gained and use their now-found skills to become experts at creating their own versions of the text.