Intent

At Maidenbower Infant School and Nursery, our intent is to develop competent and confident writers who can write for a range of audiences and purposes. We believe that the best writers are always readers and that children learn how to be writers through being exposed to a range of rich and purposeful texts. Writing is a tool for communication and expression and the quote from James Britton (1976) “reading and writing float on a sea of talk” is paramount for children becoming excellent writers. We ensure that oracy is a key feature throughout our writing sequence and that children have many opportunities to orally rehearse and talk before recording. Within our writing sequence, children analyse high-quality texts and look carefully at their features. We are passionate about all children having the time to practise writing using these skills and then once confident, can innovate, putting their own individual flair to their writing. All children should feel empowered to write and be able to refine, edit and improve their writing before publishing, linking back to the purpose and audience.

Implementation

At Maidenbower Infant School and Nursery, we have created a progressive and bespoke writing curriculum by carefully mapping out the key components from the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework and the Key Stage 1 Writing Programme of Study in the National Curriculum (2014). Throughout each year group (from Reception to Year 2), we have selected high-quality texts that include good examples of the key writing components that the children will learn to use in their own writing. The texts are also linked to our topic themes to ensure that we have engaging, cross-curricular links. Below are the selected writing texts for each year group:

By using these key texts as a ‘model text’, the children will learn to write for a variety of purposes and audiences, including ‘writing to entertain’, writing to inform’ and ‘writing to persuade’. Throughout the writing sequence, the children will learn how to use the key components from the National Curriculum in their writing e.g. using conjunctions in a sentence or understanding how to use fronted adverbials in sentence and have the opportunity for repeated practise of these key skills.

Our writing sequence typically follows a two week period in Reception, which then increases to three to four weeks in Key Stage 1. The writing sequence is as follows:

Hook- Our writing sequence begins with a ‘hook’ and the key text is introduced to engage the children and give them a sense of enjoyment and purpose. Examples of a hook might include a letter to the children, a mysterious or exciting object, a ‘wow’ moment, or an enrichment experience.

Immersion- During the immersion stage, Children are immersed in the key text through drama, role play and activities to engage and bring the key text to life. Oracy and talk are used as a foundation for the writing process at this stage as it is important for children to be able to say what they are going to write. Activities such as drama are used to deepen understanding e.g. hot seating, freeze framing and role play. The key text is learnt by drawing a whole class ‘text map’ with key images and actions to help embed the text into the children’s memory. The model text contains the structures and language patterns the children will need when writing for themselves. Linked high-quality texts are read alongside the key text to enhance knowledge of vocabulary, language patterns, key spellings and grammatical patterns.

Text Detectives- During this stage of the writing sequence, time is spent analysing the model text and looking carefully for the features of the writing purpose e.g. writing to entertain or writing to persuade. As a class, the children will create a ‘writing toolkit’ to refer to throughout the writing process which includes the key features. The model text is referred to throughout the writing sequence to ensure children know how to be successful in their final write.

Practise Skills- During the ‘practise skills’ stage, children have time to practise writing in shorter bursts, focussing on developing their knowledge and understanding of the key components and skills. The children have the opportunity to ‘practise’ using newly introduced vocabulary and focus on using correct grammar and punctuation.

Innovation- Once the model text is embedded and the children can confidently write using the taught key components in short bursts of writing, the children can add their individual flair and ideas to the model text. We call this stage ‘innovation’.

Write- During the ‘writing’ stage of the sequence, the children write their own innovated version of the key text. Throughout this extended piece of writing, there are opportunities for shared and guided writing, referring back to the ‘writing toolkit’ and writing with precision and accuracy.

Review- During the ‘review’ stage, children have time to reflect and refer back to the writing toolkit and evaluate their successes. Verbal feedback is given during the lesson so that the children are taught how to edit and improve their writing. There are also opportunities for children to publish their final writing outcomes and share with their intended audience. This may be reading their writing aloud to parents, sending a letter to the Prime Minister or publishing their stories in the school library.

Writing in the wider curriculum

As a school, we are passionate about enriching our writing experiences throughout all curriculum areas, as well as within provision opportunities throughout each year group.

In Nursery and Reception, children have the opportunity to explore mark making, putting meaning to their marks and expressing themselves through writing and drawing. Throughout provision, children have the opportunity to write using different materials, including paper, whiteboards, chalk boards, paint and felt tip pens. We ensure that children are exposed to a range of purposes for writing and that these are meaningful for the children and follow their interests e.g. writing a note to the fairy who lives behind the fairy door in the classroom. In Nursery and Reception, children will constantly 'bump' into opportunities to write and make their own marks in all areas of learning. Alongside provision, children in Reception also follow our comprehensive and progressive writing sequence. 

In Key Stage 1 (Year 1 and 2), children also have the additional opportunity to write independently throughout provision. This may be choosing to practise an element of writing from their writing sequence teaching, or demonstrating their independent writing abilities throughout other subjects e.g. making a book to explain the life cycle of a frog. We know that children are motivated to write when the subject is meaningful and purposeful so we ensure that there are additional opportunities for writing throughout the day which goes above and beyond our writing sequence. We also know that some children may find writing challenging, and we are committed to supporting children to learn what works best for them and to scaffold their learning to ensure success for all. This may be by using sentence starters, removing the cognitive load of thinking of our own ideas before writing, using computing equipment or verbalising their thoughts and ideas beforehand. 

Impact

By the end of their journey at Maidenbower Infant School and Nursery, children are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to continue their writing journey into Key Stage 2.

Every child will experience success and enjoyment through our enriching writing sequence. The children at Maidenbower Infant School and Nursery view themselves as writers because of our inclusive and progressive writing curriculum which scaffolds their learning, as well as provides opportunity for challenge and individual flair. By the end of Key Stage One, children can:

• Confidently write for a variety of purposes and audiences
• Accurately write using taught grammar and punctuation
• Effectively apply the taught key writing components in their writing
• Confidently talk about their writing
• Write with stamina
• Edit and improve their writing
• Add their own individual flair to their writing

Our knowledgeable English team, including our Writing and Reading Leader work closely together to monitor the impact of our writing sequence and progressive curriculum by regularly looking at children’s writing, capturing pupil voice about their writing and observing high-quality writing lessons and providing constructive feedback. All staff have high-quality writing training to ensure that our writing sequence is taught consistently across the school. We work closely with schools in the locality to moderate children’s writing to ensure that our termly assessments are accurate and we achieve excellent writing standards as a result of our successful writing sequence.