Writing at FPJS

Writing is a crucial part of our curriculum at FPJS.   We intend our children to develop a passion for writing with an awareness of their audience, and to be able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively with a clear knowledge of the purpose of the writing. We also intend to create writers who can re-read, edit and improve their own writing, and be able to confidently use the essential skills of grammar, punctuation and spelling through a range of authentic writing purposes. We also ensure that we are focused on our federation's vision is for all of our children to have the skills and knowledge that they need to be successful in their next stage of their learning and beyond - to be the best that they can be.

Our writing curriculum provides purposeful curriculum experiences that nurture independent writers with a lifelong passion for writing.

How we teach writing at FPJS

• Our children are given opportunities to write for a wide range of audiences and purposes.  All our children are taught within their own classes, no matter what ability they are.  Some children are set personalised writing targets to ensure they are making progress at their own level. 
• Our teachers plan authentic writing opportunities around one of the 4 purposes for writing:  Writing to inform, writing to persuade, writing to entertain or writing to reflect.
• We ensure there are many opportunities to write for a REAL purpose- for example, producing a leaflet for adults to read, writing to local companies, or writing a script to add to video outcome or to enter a competition.  Writing opportunities also extend across the curriculum, with planned writing tasks within history, geography and science where possible. 
• Each unit of work focuses key writing objectives from the National Curriculum and teachers carefully guide children through the unit with the aim of all children meeting or exceeding that objective.  Children are taught to draft and edit work within a unit, just as writers do in real life.
• Writing is taught through the use of high quality texts, visual stimuli such as pictures or film or other real-life prompts to engage the children in the writing process. 
• Teachers use a combination of shared, modelled and paired writing to guide children through the writing process.
• Children work individually or in pairs to develop and improve their writing throughout the sequence of lessons, focussing on the key objectives any specific personal targets.  Children use green pen to edit and improve work.
• After editing and improving work, children then "publish" final pieces for their audience to enjoy.  This could be hand-written or produced by technology.  Final pieces of work can be found in books, or stored on Seesaw depending on the purpose and nature of the outcome.
• For children who need more support, there are many catch up sessions offered, either with the teacher or TA to ensure every child is making good progress.  Some children may be working on an individualised programme to support their learning.
• In lower KS2, there are regular planned opportunities to practise and refine handwriting skills to develop a joined, neat and legible style. By Year 5 and 6, there are handwriting intervention groups to support some children with their fine motor skills.
• Spellings are taught within the class, and children have weekly published spelling patterns for children to practice.  We reinforce spellings through spelling shed homework and morning tasks. 

Writing curriculum at FPJS is being reviewed and will be updated shortly!