Core Subjects

Writing

Writing

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Intent: Through a foundation of reading, children develop into competent, skilful writers who can write for a variety of purposes and audiences, sparking interest and engaging the reader. At Christ the Saviour, writing is celebrated in the written form and through performance and spoken language.

Implementation

At CtS, Writing and Reading are closely linked and taught through a selection of rich, core texts, dictated by the core texts map. 

CTS English Core Text Map 2020-21

Writing consists of the following areas: 

Composition

  • taught 4-5 times per week as part of a main English lesson, assessed using CtS Writing Bands.
  • Composition refers primarily to writing for a specific purpose and audience. From KS1, children are taught to recognise and master the style of differing text types – beginning with simple text types Narrative and Instruction and progressing in KS2 to include more complex genres e.g. Persuasion and Discussion. As the curriculum progresses, children are encouraged to develop their own authorial voice and recognise how to vary their style of writing for different readers.

Grammar and Punctuation

  • taught as part of the main English lesson, through a discrete Skills Starter and as sentence level tasks within a unit, assessed using CtS Writing Bands.
  • Grammar and Punctuation are the make-up of a piece of writing. These skills begin in Early Years as children learn to write for meaning. In KS1, children build on this, learning to write in complete sentences, understand different word classifications and develop sentences and text and link sentences together. In KS2, children hone and develop these skills further by learning how to vary sentence types and use different language, tense and punctuation  for effect, eventually choosing to do so independently.

Spelling 

  • taught explicitly in one short weekly lesson, teaching a specific spelling rule  from the Spelling Progression Document and practising related words using this rule, assessed through a weekly test.
  • Spelling is an essential part of ensuring writing can be understood. Every year group is taught a specific set of spellings rules, building on from Phonics, which build upon one another and are necessary for accurate spelling all the way up to Year 6.

Handwriting

  • taught explicitly 2-5 times per week, depending on the year group, using the Handwriting Progression Document.