Writing at Kea School
Intent
At Kea School we believe that children need to learn to articulate clearly and coherently
their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing. We celebrate the children's creativity and individuality in their narrative and composition.
their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing. We celebrate the children's creativity and individuality in their narrative and composition.
We aim for children to be able to:
- acquire a wide vocabulary, a solid understanding of grammar and be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules taught
- write clearly, accurately, coherently, and creatively, adapting their language and style for a range of meaningful contexts, purposes and audiences
- understand the conventions of writing and manipulate language to create effects in their individual written work
- take pride in the presentation of their writing. From Y1, children will learn to join some of their letters
- develop greater writing stamina through perseverance and resilience, increasing their volume of writing where it improves the quality of work
- communicate effectively in their writing across a variety of genres and subject matters, both in English lessons and the wider curriculum, in preparation for their future life skills
- identify their own areas for improvement in all pieces of writing with the mindset of becoming a better writer
- independently plan, draft and refine their written work over time with developing knowledge and independence
Implementation
Writing at Kea School is taught daily as a literacy lesson and through cross curricular writing opportunities. Each year group is taught through units of allocated genres to ensure all pupils are learn to write for a range of purposes and audiences. We ensure that writing is taught with a purposeful outcome to engage our pupils. Writing at Kea is taught through:
- Quality differentiated texts
- Shared writing
- Guided writing
- Whole class modelled writing
- Independent writing
- Writing different text types and narrative styles
- Writing across a variety of curriculum areas
- Planning, drafting, editing, up-levelling and presenting
- Talk 4 Writing approaches, particularly in KS1
- Daily SPaG lessons, following the RWInc and Nelson Spelling Schemes.
- Handwriting lessons, following the RWInc letter formation and the Pen Pals sequence
Impact
Teachers use assessment as an integral part of the teaching and learning process and link it clearly to the children’s next steps. As well as daily writing tasks, children also complete:
- 6 pieces of independent writing for their "Assessed Writing" books which they add to throughout their time at Kea
- A best piece of writing at the end of a genre unit for publication either on the website, in an e book, for school display, for a National or Local competition or simply for another class to enjoy
- Weekly Spelling Tests
- Half termly SPAG Assessments
- "Big Write Days", when pupils are vertically grouped across the school and produce a published piece of writing as a group.
The impact for our pupils is that they can apply their knowledge and skills to write successfully and enthusiastically for a purpose and audience. The children become more confident writers and have the ability to plan, draft and edit their own work. By the end of key stage 2 children have developed as competent writers and can manipulate language, grammar and punctuation to create effect. Skills taught in Literacy lessons are transferred into other subjects so that pupils can write for a range of purposes and in a range of styles, celebrating learning across the curriculum.
Examples of Writing 2021-22
Each Year group has been learning about a particular writing genre. After some weeks of the children mastering their genre through reading, retelling, practising, editing and redrafting , the children have produced some impressive pieces of writing.
Here are some examples of their best writing below.
Foundation- "Jack and the Beanstalk"
In Foundation we have been reading , retelling and learning about the traditional story, Jack and the Beanstalk. Look at our amazing writing!!!
"Jack and the Beanstalk" by Foundation Class
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By Lowen
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By Fred
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By Arthur
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Year 1 - Stories with familiar settings
We have read "The Tiger Who Came To Tea" by Judith Kerr. We created a story map and retold the story with actions until it was "in our tummies"! We have changed parts of the story and used our imaginations to re create parts of this wonderful story with our friends.
Year 2- Letter Writing
In Y2 we have been learning how to write letters by reading lots of letters and identifying the features of letters. We then read "Meerkat Mail" and used our letter writing skills to write our own Meerkat Mail.
Year 3-
Year 4 - Wonderlands
In Year 4 we have been working hard to create descriptive settings that will transport our readers into our chosen "Wonderland". We used C.S Lewis' classic novel, "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" as inspiration for our writing. We have edited and developed our ideas together, producing our final versions as complete mini books. These are displayed outside our classroom for everyone to read. We hope you enjoy reading these extracts as much as we enjoyed writing them.
Year 4 Wonderlands display
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The Owl, The Unicorn and the Classroom
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Extract 1
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Extract 2
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Extract 3
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Year 5- Diary Writing
In Year 5 we have been writing diaries inspired by the Arctic explorations of Ernest Shackleton. We read about the harsh conditions Ernest and his team experienced and wrote diaries entries base on some of the true events. Please read some extracts from our diaries to discover some interesting, inside facts about Shackleton's adventures.
Year 6-
Pop Up Literacy Festival
Recently, Kea School took part in the annual "Pop Up Literacy Festival". Each class took part in a live author talk and workshop. We were lucky enough to "virtually" meet many famous authors, including , Julia Donaldson, Smriti Halls, Emily Gravett, Any Stanton , James Carter and Ben Miller, to name but a few!!!