What does Writing look like at Chisenhale?
Intent
We aim to inspire all children to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively through the spoken and written word.
Writing tasks are purposeful, with a sense of audience at their heart. We set high expectations for all children to take pride in their work, focusing on handwriting and presentation alongside imaginative content. The children are supported in weaving their growing vocabulary, spelling and grammar knowledge into the compositional content of their writing.
Implementation
We use high-quality core texts as a stimulus for writing. These have been selected through the recommendations from the Centre of Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE). We firstly immerse the children in the books, enjoying reading these as a reader, discovering the narrative, language and organisational features. We then move on to consider the authorial choices and grammar chosen for purpose. This informs the key writing skills that we learn, using the text as a scaffold to support and inspire inventive and independent writing.
We teacher handwriting and spelling as discrete lessons, ensuring that the children have time to practise these key transcription skills. Within each writing cycle, there is a focus on re-drafting, proofreading and editing the writing to improve the written outcomes.
Our approaches to teaching writing ensures that all children can:
- Write creatively, matching the purpose and audience
- Expand and enrich their vocabulary
- Understand the writing cycle. Develop their writing skills by learning how to plan, draft, re-draft and evaluate their own and others’ writing for different purposes and for different audiences.
- Publish their writing for the audience and celebrate their outcomes!
Impact
Children have been given the opportunity to find their author’s voice, and have been encouraged to use it.
Children develop a love of writing, expressing their opinions, imaginations and creativity in writing that is well-structured, coherent and interesting to read.
They strive to include their ever-expanding vocabulary.
They want the reader to be hooked by what they have written!
Children develop their confidence in their writing abilities and make brave choices, experiment with and take risks in their writing.
Writing
September writing 2024
At the start of the new academic year, Early Years, KS1 and KS2 explored and enjoyed three great core texts linked to the theme 'Growing Together', supporting their transition into a new year group. All three texts focus on a child’s desire to impact on the natural world around them through rewilding, and on building a sense of community through interacting with nature in shared spaces. Each section will build children’s knowledge of the importance of plants, trees and flowers to people and wildlife in the local community and engage children in positive acts of change to support in their local area.
Early Years looked at Errol’s Garden by Gillian Hibbs: Errol tells us of his desire for a real garden. He is good at growing things but is running out of space in his tower block flat. Then, one day, he realises that the block has a roof which would make the perfect place for a garden. He involves his neighbours who bring their
range of skills to creating it.
KS1 enjoyed The Secret Sky Garden by Linda Sarah and Fiona Lumbers: Funni loves hearing the planes and watching the sights from the abandoned airport car park, but she feels that something is missing. Over the course of the book, she transforms the abandoned area into a beautiful garden and with it, discovers a new friend. A wonderful story sharing the impact small actions can make on a community and on ourselves.
KS2 read The Promise by Nicola Davies and Laura Carlin: A girl who is hardened by the harsh urban environment that surrounds her is transformed into a guerrilla gardener by unexpected events. The burgeoning wildlife opens up people’s hearts and minds and the girl moves on to multiply the magic. In spare poetic prose, Nicola Davies has fashioned a variation on the myth of the Green Man for a modern age.
September writing 2024
