English - Writing

At Plympton St Mary’s and Old Priory Junior Academy ( St. Mary’s Priory Schools)  we believe that speaking, listening, reading and writing are fundamental life skills, which enable children to communicate effectively in all areas of the curriculum and equips them for the challenges they will face in the wider world.

At our schools, we endeavour to create a love for literacy. We want every child to leave us with the skills of an excellent writer. Throughout their time at St. Mary’s Priory Schools, children develop their skills by exploring a wide-range of genres, with a focus on exploring a range of models of excellence and using these to guide the drafting and editing process. We expect the highest standards of writing every time a child writes in any subject.

We aim that:

• Children have the ability to write with fluency and each has an author’s voice.
• Children are writing for a purpose and their writing is engaging; they think about the impact they want their writing to have on the reader and know how they will achieve this.
• Children develop writing from high quality text models and worked examples.
• Children develop proficiency in writing in a range of genres, have a sophisticated bank of vocabulary, and an excellent knowledge of writing techniques to extend details or description.
• Opportunities for writing purposefully are developed through other areas of the curriculum and beyond the school.
• Children develop writing stamina.
• Children are motivated to re-read, edit and improve their writing so every piece of writing they produce is to the best of their ability and better than the last.
• Children display excellent transcription skills that ensure their writing is well presented, punctuated and spelt correctly

The impact of our writing curriculum and carefully crafted, well taught lessons with appropriate and ongoing feedback for each child can be seen in the progress that children make in their books. As a result, we have a community of enthusiastic writers who enjoy showcasing their developing literacy skills. They are becoming more confident to take risks in their writing, they have flow, flair and control, and love to discuss and share their ideas.