Understanding

Developing skilled, independent writers is at the core of our writing process.  

The first lesson of each topic is a writing baseline and the final lessons involve the pupils completing and editing their own independent writing pieces. This enables us (and the children) to review the progress made by comparing these writing pieces. 

From Baseline to Final Independent Writing Piece

"This year, I’ve worked hard to improve my handwriting as well as extending my sentences and using high level punctuation. My favourite topic so far has been our writing inspired by ‘Clockwork’. I love how Philip Pullman uses lots of idioms throughout his writing and it really inspired me to include them in my own piece." Bobby P

"This year, I liked writing my persuasive letter in the shoes of Lady Macbeth because I could use my knowledge of the text and quotes in my writing to bring it to life. The debate lesson was brilliant because it gave me a good opportunity to consider what Macbeth may be thinking and how killing Duncan would affect him. However, I used this to create strong counter arguments and flattery to convince him why Lady Macbeth's point of view was superior!" Hallie R

"If you compare my two pieces, you can see that there is a huge improvement in the quality of the vocabulary and the way I have used language and punctuation for effect. In this piece, I really enjoyed using non-standard English as an author's decision because I could use some slang to create a character who was writing in stead of being myself." George M

"If you compare my two pieces, you can see that there is a huge improvement in the quality of the vocabulary and the way I have used language and punctuation for effect. In this piece, I really enjoyed using non-standard English as an author's decision because I could use some slang to create a character who was writing in stead of being myself." Millie C

"In my baseline assessment, I used some subheadings, but my paragraphs were shorter and lacked detail. I also wrote as though I was going to read out my report so I wrote more informally and had a different audience in mind - I thought my report would be read out on children's TV! After learning about techniques for writing more formally, I thought carefully about my vocabulary choices and used embedded clauses to add further detail to my paragraphs." Lillie W

"I enjoyed learning about the symbols and figurative language that war poets used when they were writing about their experience of war. I tried to use some of these personification skills in my writing to try and bring the war scene to life and make it more realistic." Charlie J

Writing Across the Curriculum

Pupils are given opportunities to use the skills and knowledge that they have learnt in writing across a range of curriculum topics.

Independent Writing at Home

Competitions offer the chance for pupils to apply their writing skills independently beyond the classroom. From BBC's 500 words stories to Young Writers Competitions; national writing contests with the University of Liverpool to writing newspaper articles for Tim Quinn...

Take a look at some of our entries below...