Literacy Leaders

Miss C McGinnes (EYFS & KS1)
Miss C Baxter (KS2)

At Wombwell Park Street Primary School, we place great emphasis on developing our children as writers. From the moment  children enter our school in nursery, all their attempts at mark making are valued as we aim to nurture a 'can do' attitude. We have high expectations around the mechanics of writing, including handwriting where we follow the Martin Harvey approach, as well as spelling. As a school who believe in having an integrated curriculum, we try where possible to make links to other aspects of our Curriculum learning to constantly deepen the children's understanding of concepts beyond the classroom.

In the Early Years Foundation Stage classes, there are planned purposeful writing opportunities available in all areas of provision to inspire the children to write for a real reason e.g. writing a shopping list in the home corner or a model design in the construction area. Alongside this, adults model writing regularly so children can see how adults write and for what reasons. 

As children progress into Key Stage 1 and 2, writing becomes more refined and follows a whole school format we refer to as GASP. The process for writing follows a clear structure so that children can see writing as a progressive skill. GASP stands for Gather, Acquire, Structure and Present - and is the sequence that all children move through before producing a final written piece. Below is a brief summary of how the model works:

Gather: During the gather stage of writing, children will experience a hook into learning,  This should be something that will engage the class and provide a purpose from writing. From this the class should be able to identify a clear Text, Audience and Purpose for writing.  Exposure to texts is crucial to allowing children to identify how to structure their own work. As such, within this phase, children should be given time to identify features of the text type from high quality sources and use this to inform a Success Criteria for writing,

Acquire: Once children have gathered enough background understanding of the text type they are aiming to produce, they move into the next stage of writing - acquire. This is where children identify the grammar skills which are needed for the children to compose a good piece of writing, for example expanded noun phrases would be suitable to writing a description. It is expected that children will master the skill discretely before applying within the context of sentences or extended writing opportunities. Once pupils have secured their understanding they can then begin to apply it within their written work. 

Structure: Structure is the point at which children begin to plan our their writing and produce a first draft. Children will explore suitable formats to plan their ideas on before the process of writing is modelled. All children should have the opportunity to see writing modelled by their teachers before they are expected to independently apply their skills. This allows students to share and contribute ideas, take direct feedback and address any misconceptions before they are given the chance to produce their own work. Once a first draft is complete, the children move to the final aspect of structuring their writing, which is to reflect critically on what has been written and begin to edit and uplevel the content. This is an essential skill as it encourages children to see that writing is not a single process but is a continued cycle of write, review. 

Present: Finally, the final stage of the writing process is for children to write their best version of their text. This allows them to action all noted changes and produce a neat final version which they can celebrate. This is achieved through pupils acting on the purpose for writing. E.g. If children had written stories to Year 2, the expectation is that children are then given the opportunity to share these with the relevant class to ensure that their writing remainder purposeful throughout the writing process. 

End of Year expectations for Writing can be found on each class' web page. These are specific to each of the relevant year groups.