INTENT:

At St. Francis Xavier's School, we aim for ALL our children to become confident, fluent writers who are able to use the wide range of writing tools they have accessed and developed whilst on their writing journey with us. 

IMPLEMENTATION:

At St. Francis Xavier’s School we ensure that all children see themselves as a writer.  We  follow ‘The Write Stuff’ from Reception through to Year 6 with results that we are enormously proud of. The Write Stuff is the work of the teacher, author and education consultant Jane Considine.

The Write Stuff brings clarity to the mechanics of writing and provides clear systems through which to focus the writer’s attention.

The combination of fiction and non-fiction units we have carefully selected to follow provide children throughout their journey with the experience of a wide range of high quality texts and authors. In our lessons teachers follow a repeated pattern of ‘Initiate’, ‘Model’ and ‘Enable’ whereby they use the three zones of writing to provide a consistent whole school systematic approach to writing carefully constructed sentences.

The Fantastics offer 9 lenses with which to structure ideas and target children’s thinking. This supports children in developing variety in their writing by focussing on the vocabulary used, initiating ideas, provoking thoughts and igniting imaginations.   

The Grammaristics focus on the importance of accurate grammqr where tools are taught and used immediately to help children develop fascination around language so that they can manipulate and carefully structure words into sentences

The Boomtastics focus on the art of writing, using a range of literary devices and techniques to make careful choices, playing with language to add flair to our writing and achieve various intentional impacts on our reader, painting vivid pictures through our word choices.

High expectations are coupled with careful monitoring and scaffolding, ‘holding the hands’ of our children and looking at the mathematics of a sentence so that they feel ready to write independently using the wide range of writing tools they have been trained to use.

Acquisition of language is of vital importance to us at St.Francis Xavier’s and through out writing lessons we aim to support children in widening their vocabulary, accessing language at least 18 months beyond that that they may use naturally. We achieve this through techniques such as ‘Picture Power’, ‘Shades of Meaning’ and focussing on the sentences ‘Intent’.

IMPACT:

Children will be respected as an individual writer, provided with regular opportunities to make individual choices and encouraged to develop their own creativity. Regular practise of key writing skills will provide children with the confidence to apply these in a range of independent situations whereby they have the chance to show what they have internalised. The range of writing experiences we provide will enable all children to alter their long term memory and knowledge more, remember more and be able to do more as writers.

Pupil Voice by the School Council

Keira (Year 3), "Sometimes we write stories in Literacy and sometimes we learn about non-fiction. I enjoy doing a range of different writing."