Writing
Writing makes me feel complete, it is a door to your wildest dreams, writing is an opportunity to express your feelings and show your true colours of what you can do - Year 4 Child
Curriculum Intent
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Writing is an essential life skill. We want all children to aspire to become authors, columnists, bloggers, reporters and screenwriters, as well as to enjoy writing as a powerful means of self-expression and communication. We encourage pupils to think deeply, develop informed opinions about what they read and experience, and respond thoughtfully through their writing.
We unlock our pupils’ writing potential by immersing them in high-quality, aspirational texts. Through the Talk for Writing approach, we provide all children with the tools they need to become creative and confident authors, continuously developing their skills while fostering a love of both reading and writing. From the earliest stages, there is a strong emphasis on building secure foundations, including accurate letter formation, handwriting, and the application of phonics, ensuring children develop the core skills needed for successful writing.
Our aim is to prepare all pupils to be successful communicators and writers, enabling them to achieve their aspirations throughout their education and beyond.
Curriculum Implementation
At Elmhurst School, writing is taught through the Talk for Writing approach. This approach is particularly effective as it enables children to orally rehearse and internalise the language they need before moving on to reading, analysing, innovating and writing independently. Throughout this process, foundational skills such as letter formation, transcription, spelling and sentence construction are taught explicitly and practised regularly, ensuring pupils develop accuracy and confidence alongside creativity.
If you would like further information on our writing curriculum or how to help your child at home then please get in contact with our Writing Leader, Miss Melinda Harper on 01296 481380 or office@esglt.co.uk
Talk for Writing
‘Talk for Writing’ was developed by the author Pie Corbett. It is a fun, creative, yet rigorous approach to develop writers.
There are 3 stages to the Talk for Writing approach:
Imitation
A text is introduced and read to the children; together the class learn to tell the story. To help the children remember the text a multi-sensory approach is used:
- A visual story map
- Actions
- A focus on lively, animated expression
As children learn the stories word for word, they develop the use of specific sentence structures, which they can then use in their own writing. The principle is that if a child can tell a story, they will be able to write it.
Innovation
In this stage the original text is adapted with the children using shared writing. This could start with a simple change of character or for the older children it may involve telling the story from a different viewpoint. Children can make changes to their story map and rehearse retelling their innovated story orally. Following shared writing, children then write the innovated story in manageable sections working in guided groups with the teacher or LSA at least once in the week. Pupils then receive feedback and have an opportunity to respond to this before writing the next section. It is a very supportive and structured approach to allow children to gain confidence and know what they need to do to improve.
Independent Application
This is the final stage where the children use all the skills they have learnt to write an independent piece. There is the freedom to draw upon their own ideas and experiences, or they can ‘hug closely’ to the shared text should they need to.
Additional information about Talk for Writing can be found here: What is Talk for Writing? - Talk for Writing (talk4writing.com)
The 'Talk for Writing' process revolves around enjoying stories and reading books. We encourage all parents to read with their children every day whatever their age or ability.
Children who read for pleasure are more likely to succeed as writers because of the way in which reading develops language development.