Writing

The Implementation of Writing throughout St Alban’s 

Throughout the school, we follow the ‘WRITER’ sequence to ensure a consistent approach to developing writing. 

W- Work on Words 

R- Read as a Writer 

I – Investigating Writer Choices 

T – Try it out 

E – Edit and Improve 

R – Review Key Learning 

This help support the children to build a piece of writing, through scaffolding, before being expected to use the process to create their own. Teachers decide how these lessons are structured, and at what pace, and this will look different in the various key stages. 

Our Writing curriculum ensures that:

  • Children build upon previous learning through thoughtful text choices and development of grammatical application.
  • Children enjoy writing and can confidently discuss what they have chosen particular words and phrases depending on the purpose and audience.
  • Children can understand how to apply new, adventurous vocabulary.
  • Children are challenged appropriately with ‘Prove its.’ 

Progression maps are used to ensure writing develops appropriately at each stage and children are tracked at various stages in the year to make sure they are making sufficient progress. Teachers are ambitious with the content that they deliver and support is then given to those who need extra support to reach age-related expectations. Teaching strategies such as ‘dual coding’ are used throughout the curriculum to ensure that children are remembering the key knowledge studied, which supports them as they structure independent writing. 

Handwriting and spelling are taught separately in discrete sessions to reduce the cognitive load of our children during the writing process.