Writing

Intent

At Riversdale Primary School, the teaching of writing aims to inspire a love of the subject and equip pupils with the skills necessary to communicate effectively and accurately across a range of contexts, preparing them for secondary education and beyond.

We seek to develop pupils' ability to express ideas clearly, creatively, and purposefully, adapting their writing to suit different audiences and purposes. Central to this is the expansion of pupils' vocabulary, enabling them to enhance their writing by selecting words with precision, as well as applying relevant grammatical concepts suited to each genre. This is achieved through engagement with rich, diverse, and high-quality texts, where pupils encounter models of excellent writing that entertain, inform, and persuade, inspiring them to experiment with language, structure, and style.

We also aim to instil in pupils that writing is a process - one that involves drafting, editing, and refining, rather than producing a final piece in a single sitting. This approach not only builds their confidence and independence as writers, but also helps them become adaptable, developing their "writer’s voice" to suit different contexts and purposes. Finally, we aim to support pupils in ensuring that handwritten work is clear, legible, and presented with pride, reinforcing the value of presentation alongside content.

Through this process, we equip pupils with the tools to write thoughtfully and creatively, both in school and in the wider world.

Implementation

Writing

In September 2024, the school adopted The Write Stuff approach to teaching writing. The Write Stuff is not a scheme; it is a way to liberate learners so that they have a complete set of tools and structures that can be applied to their writing in all contexts. The system arms both teachers and pupils with the knowledge and understanding of what to write and how to write.

Over their time at the school, children will write a variety of fiction, non-fiction and poetry pieces. To facilitate this, we use high-quality stimuli, including images, music, short film clips, picture books and longer texts, which are used to engage the imagination, before moving on to vocabulary exploration, sentence craft and creative writing.

In the teaching sequence, there are three different types of lessons; writing lessons, experience lessons and independent writing lessons. The teaching sequence for each unit may be different depending upon the content, but this is outlined at the start of each unit. Immersive experience lessons, including school trips, aim to develop a wide vocabulary bank and a deeper understanding of related concepts that will act as a foundation for the writing process.

A writing lesson consists of up to three ‘learning chunks’.  Each learning chunk consists of:

  1. Initiate - inspiring learning through stimuli and micro grammar teaches;
  2. Model - modelling quality sentence construction, and reinforcement of grammar concepts linked to audience and purpose;
  3. Enable - pupils construct their own sentences.

During lessons, pupils are taught through three zones of writing which form the Writing Rainbow.

  • Fantastics - the ideas of writing and associated vocabulary;
  • Grammaristics - the specific grammar tools required for the particular piece of writing;
  • Boomtastics - the literary devices/techniques that engage the reader. 

The Fantastics are intentionally introduced from the Early Years, to build pupil vocabulary and enable children to develop a wide range of words to express themselves with contextual accuracy and precision. The introduction of each Grammaristic lens is carefully planned in line with the National Curriculum, whilst the Boomtastics are introduced at different Key Stages, based on their level of complexity.

This progression is carefully planned to ensure that children leave us with a wealth of techniques, as well as the flair and grammatical understanding needed to communicate effectively in various written formats, wherever their future takes them. Furthermore, writing opportunities are planned across the curriculum to ensure that pupils understand the significance of their learning in a wider context. For example, pupils will write up investigations in Science, recount events in History or describe processes in Geography.

Once pupils have drafted a piece of writing, they are guided through a process of editing in which they reflect upon and assess their work, looking for ways in which is can be improved in relation to accuracy, and/or deepened in terms of quality.

Finally, once a term, pupils will select their favourite piece of writing to publish, allowing them the opportunity to celebrate their achievements, while showcasing high-quality handwriting.  

Handwriting

At Riversdale Primary School, we believe that all children should to take pride in the presentation of their writing, including the development of a legible, cursive, individual handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school. To support this goal, we adopted the cursive Letter Join handwriting scheme in November 2024. As part of this, children are taught letter formation which includes a lead in and lead out mark. This decision has been made in order to reduce cognitive load for children, as all lowercase letters will start on the line, thus reducing a child's need to think about where to begin writing. 

Children will begin learning to write through the development of gross/fine motor skills, drawing prewriting shapes, mark making and letter formation families in Early Years. This transitions to joined letters in Year 2, with the ultimate goal of clear, legible and joined handwriting by Year 6. In order to ensure children make rapid progress in this area, they undertake either an explicit teaching of handwriting including modelling and application, or a practise activity based on prior learning, as the starter of every writing lesson. 

We actively focus on the three Ps - Posture, Pen(cil) and Paper - across the school, to support pupils in being well prepared for quality handwriting. Pupils are taught what adjustments, in relation to these, are required depending on whether they are right or left-handed and the school plans pupil seating carefully to ensure left-handed pupils are sat on the left of the desk, thus providing them with the necessary space. 

Spelling

At Riversdale, we aim to create a positive culture around spelling, where pupils develop the confidence and resilience necessary for academic success. From Reception to Year 2, spelling is taught through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised scheme, in which pupils focus on segmenting decodable words using taught grapheme/phoneme correspondences, as well as memorising a range of common "tricky" words.

When pupils move into Year 3, they are taught spellings through the application of The Spelling Book scheme. This addresses the National Curriculum fundamentals, but also coincides with the teaching of The Write Stuff and supports the school's focus of vocabulary building and gathering. It enables pupils to develop their listening and decoding skills, building on their mastery of phonics, thus allowing them to make logical and systematic grapheme choices when spelling unfamiliar words. 

   

The teaching of the scheme is undertaken in a two-week cycle. In the first week, pupils follow a system of deep exploratory investigations, looking at concepts such as etymology and morphology, to build a strong knowledge of specific word and spelling patterns. In the second week, pupils undertake daily, short-burst ‘chunked’ revision activities, which have been designed to increase ‘stickability’ and the retention of spellings and vocabulary.

Based on regular assessment for learning, pupils have continually updated personal spelling targets - words that embed spellings and/or spelling patterns that are uniquely challenging to them. Over time, this process results in rapid and sustained progress.

Finally, throughout their time at Riversdale, pupils will use personal spelling journals, which allow them a free and creative space to note, not only useful spellings, but also vocabulary that inspires them. This addition to the spelling curriculum works to celebrate words, and encourages pupils to actively collect and treasure them, giving them a personal significance and making the process of learning pleasurable. 

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    Riversdale Primary School
    302A Merton Road
    Wandsworth London
    SW18 5JP

    0208 874 6904
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