At Our Lady of the Visitation, we want our children to become coherent and effective writers. We want pupils to be able to use their skills fluently, so that they can apply them in wider life. We introduce the pupils to a range of high quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry books through our curriculum, including our chosen class texts as a stimulus for the Process Approach to teaching writing.

In the early stages of writing, we encourage pupils to give meaning to their marks as they draw, write and paint. Mark making is a valuable first step to writing. We teach pupils to link sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet.   We develop pupils’ confidence to write their own name and simple labels and captions.  By the end of the early years, we intend for pupils to be able to use their phonic knowledge to write phonologically plausible words, tricky words, and simple sentences in meaningful contexts.

Teaching Writing

We use the Process Approach to Writing across Key Stage 1 and 2.  Pupils are introduced to a range of high quality texts to support their learning within units of work. They take part in many build up activities to learn about different genres of writing, grammar & punctuation and vocabulary development.  A shared writing model is then in place to scaffold and support children towards independence.  All pupils are given opportunities to plan and discuss ideas before writing tasks.  Speaking and listening is a key part of the Process Approach.  The shared model consists of:

1. Teacher demonstration - where a modelled example is displayed to act as a starting point for pupils.
2. Teacher scribing – the teacher improves the example using pupils’ ideas.
3. Supported composition – in pairs, pupils continue the writing/next passage. The teacher encourages and models editing and improving.  This is also a good opportunity for ‘magpie time’ – allowing pupils time to jot down any other key vocabulary and phrases that they may want to use.
4. Independent writing – pupils begin their own writing, using any ideas discussed.  Resources can be provided for pupils to support writing.  This is also a valuable time for teachers to give any verbal feedback.

Pupils are continually encouraged to check, edit and improve their writing, as this is a key concept that we want them to understand.  We aim for pupils to be able to apply their understanding to a range of contexts.  Writing opportunities are planned for in cross curricular subjects, which allow the strategies learnt to be used again and further embedded.