Langdon Academy

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English - Writing   

Read to Write

“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.”

John Keating

At Langdon Academy, English is at the heart of everything we do. By the end of Year Six, we intend our children to have developed a love of writing and to be able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively through the written word. We also intend to create writers who can re-read, edit and improve their own writing, and enable pupils to be able to confidently use the essential skills of grammar, punctuation and spelling. We set high expectations for all our children to take pride in their work and have a fluent, cursive handwriting style alongside allowing their imaginations to flourish.  

Through using high-quality texts, immersing children in vocabulary rich learning environments and ensuring new curriculum expectations and the progression of skills are met, our children will be exposed to a language heavy, creative and continuous English curriculum which will not only enable them to become primary literate but will also develop a love of reading, creative writing and purposeful speaking and listening.

 What do we want from our curriculum? 

  • To build and deliver an English curriculum which develops learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge and skills which enables children to access the wider curriculum. 
  • A vocabulary rich curriculum which empowers children to access the wider curriculum.  

How do we deliver writing at Langdon Academy?

In order to help us to develop confident, enthusiastic writers who can express themselves in a variety of different styles and across a variety of contexts, our teaching of writing is often cross curricular and linked to our class themes. This provides our children with regular opportunities to write for a range of purposes and audiences. In English lessons, we use ‘Read to Write’ units to support teacher planning. ‘Read to Write’ empowers our teachers to provide high-quality teaching of writing through children’s high-quality literature. The units of work focus on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts, with a wealth of writing opportunities. Teaching blocks focus on fiction, non-fiction or poetry, in line with the 2014 National Curriculum and comprehension, grammar and writing are embedded in lessons.

At Langdon Academy we: 

  • Teach English - Writing on a daily basis across the school;
  • Tailor our planning to the needs of our class;
  • Moderate our pupils’ writing frequently within Key Stages and local schools;  
  • Excite our children through author visits;
  • Use high quality literature to plan from;
  • Use Assessment for Learning and encourage our children to be active in reviewing the successes in their work and identifying areas for improvement; 
  • Celebrate children’s writing in their writing portfolio.

The impact of a high quality English Writing curriculum will show children who:

  • Have developed a love of writing and be well equipped for secondary school;
  • Have made good progress from their own starting point;
  • Have acquired a wide vocabulary and use this across the curriculum both verbally and in written work;
  • Have achieved age related expectations across the wider curriculum;

And:

  • Parents and carers having a good understanding of how they can support spelling, grammar and composition and home, and contribute regularly to homework.

The impact on our children will be clear: progress, sustained learning and transferable skills.  

Our planning uses the Read to Write scheme of learning 

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. They also enable schools 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.

Read to Write aims to provide high-quality teaching of writing through high-quality literature. These detailed units of work focus on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts, with a wealth of writing opportunities within and across the curriculum.

They are being implemented with great success because they also provide:

  • Clear sequential Episodes of Learning
  • Vocabulary learning and contextualised spelling, grammar and punctuation
  • Wider reading for the wider curriculum
  • Curriculum Enrichments
  • Model Texts linked to writing outcomes
  • A wealth of supporting resources

The below documents show how writing progression is supported across each year group.

 EYFS writing progression

Year 1 writing progression

Year 2 writing progression

Year 3 writing progression

Year 4 writing progression

Year 5 writing progression

Year 6 writing progression