Intent

At Cedar Park school we follow and adapt accordingly the Read to Write scheme across the school. The aim is to deliver an engaging and inspiring curriculum which is both inclusive and progressive. Read to Write is evidence-based teaching of writing through comprehensive units that have been carefully constructed so the entire statutory curriculum for English is covered from EYFS to Y6.

The teaching of this scheme also enables us to draw upon the wider curriculum. This in turn, helps build a rich curriculum where Intent and Implementation leads to Impact and improved outcomes for children. The overall intention is for children to be both excited about the prospect of writing across a range of genres, whilst being supported with the tools the need to be competent and successful.

Implementation

Writing is taught daily across the school. Read to Write empowers us to provide high- quality teaching of writing through high quality literature. These revised detailed units of work centre on engaging, vocabulary – rich texts, with a wealth of writing opportunities within and across the curriculum and they also signpost wider curriculum enrichments. These units are being implemented with great success because the also provide:

• Clear sequential episodes of learning
• Example texts (greater depth WAGOLL)
• Vocabulary learning
• Contextualised Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation
• Writer’s knowledge linked to national standards
• Progressions documents with year group expectations
• Reflecting on unit outcomes: Planning for next steps
• Example planning format
• Wider reading for the wider curriculum
• A wealth of resources linked to the national standards
• Explicit links to the National Curriculum

Impact

After each piece of extended writing, children are given a Success Criteria. Here, children are given the opportunity to assess their writing against the key skills they have been learning for that unit. Once filled out by the child, the teacher will then provide their own feedback.  Children are given the opportunity to edit their writing across 2–3 days. Final pieces of writing are published in the child’s ‘Inspired to write book’ which show their progression in writing as they go up the school.

What Does Writing look like at Cedar Park?

Our Read to Write resources follow a common sequence: Immerse, Analyse, Plan and Write. This is based on a tried and tested model (UKLA and Primary National Strategy, 2004 p.7) and acknowledges the strong interrelationship between speaking and listening, reading and writing.

• Immerse – Children are immersed in vehicle text. They enjoy, explore and respond. They determine purpose, audience and form
• Analyse – Children are familiarised with text structures, language features and knowledge for the writer.
• Plan – Children gather ideas and plan their writing
• Write – modelled and guided writing. Application of writers’ skills and knowledge. Independent writing and draft, revise, edit

All of these Read to Write resources include reading for pleasure: there is clear evidence that children learn to write from what they read. Our Vehicle Texts are carefully chosen to be read aloud, enjoyed and discussed. They are challenging and beautifully written, and also provide important opportunities to teach new vocabulary explicitly. The illustrations lend themselves to Booktalk and drama and also provide rich and engaging opportunities to write for a genuine purpose to a range of audiences which can be highly motivating.

If children are to write at greater depth, they need to know what excellence at that exact standard looks like. So, alongside the Vehicle Texts is an additional piece of writing that we have called an Example Text. This has been carefully crafted to provide one example of what the outcome might look like at greater depth. This isn’t designed to be learnt by heart or replicated. It has been designed it for attentive reading and finding out how writing works.

Experienced writers can draw on a ‘repertoire of possibilities’ and the Example Text allows discussion about the choices the author has made and the effect on the reader. Activities are included to make the generic structure, its language features, and knowledge for the writer visible under the heading Writer’s Knowledge. This explicit teaching is an important way of improving writing.

Both the Vehicle Text and Example Text provide opportunities to explore and practise ways of controlling grammar for effect. Grammar skills are best learned in the context of purposeful writing. We include grammar activities that can be augmented by other resources as needed. Teaching Grammar Effectively at KS1) is an excellent text.

The Read to Write resources include many opportunities for modelling and helping to shape the voice children can use themselves when they are writing independently. This powerful pedagogy is crucial to being an effective teacher of writing. Successful independent writing is the end aim of all this preparation. We use one box per paragraph planning frameworks to support this, and suggestions for supporting the writing process are used to help children regularly loop back on their writing and begin to assess its quality and likely impact.

Writing at Cedar Park for children with SEND

• At Cedar Park, we provide suitable learning opportunities for all pupils by matching the challenge of the task to the individual needs and abilities of each pupil. We will achieve this in a variety of ways, including:
• Pre-expose learners to the content of the lesson, e.g: introduce vocabulary, topics, link to previous learning etc.
• Provide visual aids to support learners.
• Provide word banks to support with spellings etc.
• Provide lots of opportunities for shared work where children can support each other
• Drip-feed key vocabulary throughout the school day, rather than limiting references to specific writing lessons.
• Assigning classroom assistants to individual/groups of pupils, where appropriate, to enable greater one-to-one support.
• Providing extra learning opportunities through bespoke support groups (e.g. one for those with SEND and another for academically more able pupils)
• Using cooperative learning to ensure all children are engaged in their learning
• Use strategies such as modelling and demonstrating to help learners understand scientific concept

Useful Documents & Links