To support the National Curriculum for Writing, our teaching is inspired by a whole-school mastery approach to writing through the programme Pathways to Write. Units of work are delivered using high-quality texts as a stimulus for learning and children in all year groups are given varied opportunities for writing. Skills are built up through repetition of the key skills across the units, and children apply these skills in the writing activities provided. The units can be used thematically (where appropriate) to encourage a whole-school approach to writing with the opportunity for topics to link across all year groups.
Each unit covers a range of areas in the National Curriculum:
- Mastery of vocabulary, grammar and punctuation skills
- Writing a range of genres across a year
- Vocabulary development
- Using a wider range of reading comprehension strategies as a whole class
- Spoken language activities including drama and presentations
- Opportunities for practising previously taught genres
- An extended, independent piece of writing
An Overview of Pathways to Write – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM_yb4gWu6M
Many opportunities for widening children’s vocabulary are given through the Pathways to Write approach, and this builds on the extensive work we do in school to provide our children with a rich and varied vocabulary. Additionally, teachers adapt the Pathways to Write sessions and resources to ensure engaging and purposeful English lessons are delivered that are tailored to the needs of their class. For example, teachers create teacher-written models to provide an example of ‘what a good one looks like’ (WAGOLL) to guide pupils through their learning, and they also engage in joint writing opportunities, whereby the teacher models effective writing before the children try in an ‘I write -you write’ format. By modelling the expected outcome and engaging in these approaches, children are supported to use skills required and are equipped to use such skills in their independent writing.
Every half term, pupils complete at least two completely independent writes in Hot Write Books; teachers assess these against the statutory requirements to aid accurate judgements of attainment.
