
3WARWICK ROAD PRIMARY SCHOOL |
BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE
which are stuck in and ticked off at
the front of all English books. These
detail exactly what children in each
year group should be able to do. This
allows children to see exactly where
they stand with regard to writing,
and, again, what they need to do to
progress even further. As children
know what is expected of them, they
grow even more confident.
It is this confidence that allows children
to access high-quality texts. The SLT
worked hard to create a curriculum
that largely centres on quality texts.
This is not restricted to literature,
however. Very often, units of work are
based on picture books or provoking
video clips. This means that children
who favour different learning styles
are able to access the curriculum.
In year 6, for example, children are
exposed to difficult texts such as
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare and
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens.
As our children love a challenge, they
persevere with the difficult language.
Writing is largely about absorbing what
has been read and making it one’s
own, so we firmly believe that children
should be exposed to the best.
Persistent approach
This year, we are working towards
ensuring that this high standard of
writing is applied across all subject
areas. In order to achieve this, the SLT
have devised a curriculum in which
most subjects centre around the one
topic. For example, children in year 5
who are currently studying the First
World War for their creative curriculum
topic are using
War Horse
, a text set
during The First World War, as the
basis for their writing unit. As both
subject areas revolve around the same
topic, children are able to apply what
they have learnt in their writing to
their creative curriculum work and vice
versa – thereby raising the standards of
writing in both.
Rigorous monitoring takes place
in order to ensure that the high
expectations we have are being
maintained. An English book scrutiny
takes place every half-term – each
with a different focus. The subject
coordinator looks at what each
individual child achieves in reading,
writing and SPaG to ensure that
teacher assessments are as accurate
as possible. Both year 2 and year 6
have been externally moderated in
the last two years, and both were
positive experiences which confirmed
that our assessment procedures are
effective. Moreover, we host our own
in-house moderations, sometimes
involving other schools, with the other
year groups, too, so that everyone
understands the process of moderation
and that everyone is aware of the
expectations in each year group.
Writing is
largely about
absorbing
what has been
read and
making it
one’s own, so
we firmly
believe that
children
should be
exposed to
the best
“
“
Year 4 child writing a
report about Gandhi