Writing

Subject: Writing                                             

Subject Leader: Claire Raney

Curriculum Intent: Inspiring Confident and Skilled Writers

At Warren Mead, writing is central to our curriculum, with a strong focus on writing for a clear purpose and audience to create meaningful and authentic experiences.

Our progressive and well-structured curriculum fully aligns with the National Curriculum, ensuring all children receive a comprehensive and high-quality education. By revisiting and building on key writing skills in daily lessons, we provide students with the tools to become confident and capable writers. The use of diverse, high-quality texts inspires students, nurturing their creativity and understanding of the craft of writing. 

We place significant emphasis on oracy and vocabulary development, equipping students with the language skills needed to express their ideas effectively. Our approach encourages children to make thoughtful authorial decisions, instilling a sense of ownership and pride in their writing. Teachers are supported with extensive resources, scaffolds, and adaptive strategies, ensuring every learner's needs are met. The inclusion of the CUSP Spelling Scheme adds further rigour, with explicit lessons focusing on spelling rules, letter formation, and applying skills across subjects. Together, these elements form a robust foundation that empowers our students to meet future challenges as confident writers. 

Implementation: How Writing is Taught

At Warren Mead, writing is delivered through an engaging learning journey approach that emphasizes writing for a specific purpose and audience, such as to entertain, inform, or persuade. We use Herts For Learning: Essential Writing to ensure that each learning journey is grounded in high-quality, age-appropriate texts that provide models of exemplary writing. Objectives, derived directly from the National Curriculum, are further enriched using Bloom’s Taxonomy to promote higher-order thinking and challenge. 

Key components of our writing curriculum include discrete SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar) lessons integrated into the learning journey and assessment-style questions to prepare students for summative evaluations. Vocabulary is taught systematically, with targeted lessons that help students build a rich and varied lexicon. Personalised 1:1 conferencing sessions support students in improving their writing and achieving individual targets. All children are scaffolded and supported by High Quality Teaching and additional pictures, technology, word backs and scaffolds when/if needed. Additionally, handwriting is taught using the Nelson Handwriting Scheme, ensuring consistent and high standards across all year groups. Phonics is revisited as needed further up the school, further solidifying the foundation of writing skills. This comprehensive and well-structured approach ensures students are equipped with the skills and confidence required to succeed in writing.

Assessment: Monitoring and Supporting Progress  

At Warren Mead, we take a rigorous yet supportive approach to assessing writing. In Years 2 and 6, students’ work is assessed against the Teacher Assessment Framework (TAF) exemplifications, ensuring alignment with national standards. For other year groups, progress is evaluated using writing indicator checklists, providing a clear picture of each student’s development. Regular opportunities for extended writing during the application stages of learning journeys allow students to build stamina and refine their skills. Each half term, children complete spelling assessments (taken from the National Curriculum Spelling List) in class to identify their spelling gaps so they have target spellings to focus on in each half term. 

Each term, students complete one fiction and one non-fiction learning journey, typically spanning 2-3 weeks, offering thorough exploration of writing skills. Moderation across sister schools and the GLF Trust ensures consistency and high standards in assessments. Regular feedback and targeted guidance empower students to understand their progress and actively engage in their improvement. This robust assessment process ensures every student at Warren Mead has the support they need to succeed as confident and capable writers. 

For an overview of Essential Writing click here or see document below.