Writing

At Orchard Grove, we promote a love for writing in all areas of the curriculum. Writing competence for all children is imperative. It is a life skill that enables communication and allows for the expression of inner thoughts and feelings. 

At Orchard Grove, we want all children to be able to confidently record their thoughts and ideas. We want to enable them to become effective communicators and to write to inform, entertain and express themselves with precision. We aspire to develop and maintain a whole-school understanding of the importance of writing and how it will remain essential in all walks of life. 

Our children are provided with engaging stimuli and will acquire a strong foundational understanding of English grammar and apply their phonics knowledge to be effective spellers. Children are expected to write a wide range of genres for particular purposes, audiences and contexts with text types linking to the year group curriculum subjects they are studying to build on their scientific, geographical or historical knowledge. 

Writing is taught in a three-weekly cycle through an adaptation of Pie Corbett’s Talk for Writing. The first week, imitation, largely focuses on immersing our children within a text in the style of the genre being taught as well as introducing key concepts. In the second and third week of the writing cycle, children are encouraged to become more independent writers and accurate editors by applying the concepts taught in the first week, firstly by innovating the text and then by inventing one of their own. WOW events launch each topic text at the start of a term and have the purpose of engaging the children and capturing their attention and imagination. 

It is fundamental that children have strong teacher modelling, shared writing, discussions, presentations and debates using high quality, fun and engaging texts as a stimulus.