Intent - Inspiring writing is modelled through unpicking excellent text choices, which engage our pupils to become thoughtful, creative and inventive writers. Pupils are taught to extend their vocabulary through enriched language, drawn out in all texts and areas of the curriculum. They become confident in writing for a variety of purposes and a range of contexts and have a clear and respectful understanding of their own authorial voice and that of others. Pupils learn to persevere in the learning of writing skills through demonstrating their confidence and knowledge of spelling and grammar in all writing opportunities. Handwriting and presentation are practised and demonstrated consistently across the curriculum. Pupils take pride in their work and this is celebrated throughout our environment and rewarded.

Implement - At Calverton, we use a Talk for writing model, which works to improve the pupils’ ability to understand texts on a much deeper level, extends their vocabulary and allows them to use good quality texts as models for their own writing. The approach is split into three teaching phases.

1. Reading for pleasure- In this phase, pupils spend time getting to know the text and familiarising themselves with the vocabulary. This is speaking and listening based phase, in which pupils engage in activities such as role play, class discussions and vocabulary skills lessons. During this phase, the learning environment should reflect most of the learning taking place in the form of flipchart paper on washing lines.
2. Reading as an author- In this phase, pupils analyse the text in more detail. Taking particular note of sentences structure, grammar and authorial intent. The pupils will practise using these skills in shorter pieces of writing. At the end of this phase, pupils will be introduced to a WAGOLL (what a good one looks like) which provides them with an exemplary model of writing. They will then apply the knowledge gained of these skills to support them during phase 3, when complete the main writing outcome.
3. Applying skills- In this phase, pupils will work on applying their knowledge of the text and the skills taught in phase 2, to plan, draft, edit and publish their final outcome.

There is a strong emphasis on teachers’ subject knowledge of different text types to ensure the learning sequence adequately prepares pupils for their final writing outcome.

Impact - Pupils show high levels of engagement in writing lessons, as the approach allows them to immerse themselves fully into a range of text types. Texts are carefully chosen to ensure they match the interests, needs and ability of the pupils in each individual year group. It gives them the opportunity to experience settings and vocabulary that they are not familiar with and apply this knowledge in their own writing. Through the introduction of WAGOLL’s, pupils are provided with exemplary models, which enable pupils to produce higher level pieces of writing. The focus on vocabulary in phase 1 builds up pupils’ ability to use more ambitious words in their writing.