Writing 

At Whitehall we have a rigorous and well organised English curriculum that provides many purposeful opportunities to enable all children to become skilful and confident writers, whom write for their own pleasure and that of their audience.

Teachers aim to ensure that children are fully engaged in their writing and that they understand how to use spelling, grammar and punctuation to good effect by:

• Using high quality hooks (novels, picture books, images, short films clips etc) to engage children.  
• Immersing children in a range of text types -reading, reading and more reading!
• Identifying grammar and punctuation within shared texts and extracts. 
• Modelling expectations in small steps.
• Giving continued feedback so that children’ writing develops through the process.

Handwriting and Spelling are taught weekly during the English lessons. Spellings are sent home every week for children to learn these follow the rules and patterns set out in the National Curriculum Learning activities are effectively differentiated so that all children can achieve success and feel empowered by their own accomplishments. Teachers also ensure that children are taught and know how to demonstrate greater depth in their outcomes of work. Extended writing opportunities take place across the curriculum this provides children with the opportunity to demonstrate their writing knowledge and skills outside of the English Lesson.

Children are assessed formatively through thorough questioning and feedback to ensure that teachers understand where children are currently in their learning and what their next steps need to be. In addition to this termly summative assessment opportunities take place to ensure that the progress in knowledge and skills, that each child makes, is accurately measured. Summative assessment opportunities are used to support teachers in their assessment judgements.