At Brierley Forest Primary and Nursery School, we aim to provide our children with the necessary skills to develop their knowledge and wider experiences.  We recognise that reading and writing are fundamental parts of lifelong learning and therefore our staff strive to promote these skills in everything that they do.

Within English, children will develop their oracy skills, learn how to read and expand their vocabulary, developing and applying their knowledge, skills and understanding to writing across the curriculum.

The English Overviews (see attachments below) are used to support teaching and show progression and the links between our reading, writing and the wider curriculum. The reading spines are carefully selected to support the wider curriculum and the diversity of our community, together with supporting children to learn about different cultures, geographically and historically.

Writing Intent

Our vision for writing is for children to leave Brierley Forest with the necessary skills to write for different purposes, which will help them in their next stage of education and community life. Through their resilience and perseverance, they will write with fluency, accuracy and enjoyment.

The teaching of writing has changed; the National Curriculum no longer focuses on a genre approach. As this has evolved, research tells us that we should teach writing as a process to allow children to gain the necessary skills, knowledge and experience that allows them to write for a key purpose and audience. 

Writing can be broken down into two parts: 

• Transcription – the physical process of writing, for example: handwriting, spelling, punctuation;
• Composition – the generation of ideas, carefully selecting word choice and sentence length; the use of vocabulary and grammar for effect.

Teaching writing at Brierley Forest:

Skills for writing are taught every day at Brierley Forest. This may be as standalone lessons, or as part of the wider curriculum. From EYFS upwards, we are keen that children learn to write for different purposes and audiences, learning that writing doesn’t always include sitting at a table for a specific amount of time. 

In line with Transform Trust, and with the National Curriculum’s expectations for composition, we follow a five-stage process to the teaching of writing:

Engage stage: The teacher ‘hooks’ the children in through a stimulus (e.g. launch day, high-quality text, film clip etc). The purpose and audience for writing are clearly set.

Discover stage: Children are immersed in different texts relevant to their outcome; they analyse and explore the organisation and language features. Relevant grammar and vocabulary are taught and the children have opportunities to ‘dabble’, allowing them to rehearse ideas and use appropriate language.

Compose stage: Children are taught to plan effectively and encouraged to complete their first draft – guided and shared writing are used before independent practice.

Evaluate stage: Working together to read aloud writing helps the children to revise what they have written – this may mean adding or removing words or text to improve how it sounds. Children will edit grammar, punctuation and spelling and assess their writing against the year group outcomes and purpose.

Publish stage: Children produce a final piece of writing linked to their audience.

These stages take place over a number of weeks, the length depending on the outcome.

Writing Purpose

It is clear from research into raising standards in writing that having a clear purpose for writing is essential and that children should be aware of why they are writing from the outset. When chosen carefully, this is a fantastic way to engage children.

Michael Tidd suggested that writing opportunities in the classroom can be grouped into four key purposes: entertain, inform, discuss and persuade. The diagrams below show how Tidd suggests that the purpose is organised in primary schools.