Writing

Writing at Uplands Junior L.E.A.D. Academy. 

At Uplands, the writing curriculum is arranged to allow children to become independent, fluent writers, communicating effectively across a range of genres and text types. The Writing curriculum follows a high-quality novel-based approach allowing the children to follow the text and use the text as a hook for writing so writing outcomes link to the characters, themes, context and so on. By undertaking this approach, children will naturally pick up different sentence structures, be exposed to high quality language, idioms, learn the difference between formal and informal language and it develops reading fluency and comprehension skills. See ‘Curriculum Planning 2022-2023’ under the ‘Curriculum’ tab on the school’s website for a list of the book being studied in each year group. 

The writing lesson sequence at Uplands is as follows: 

  1. Hook – this could be from the book, film snippet related to the book, role play etc. 
  2. Discuss PURPOSE and AUDIENCE – every piece of writing requires a purpose (why is the writing being done) and an audience. Levels of formality will change depending on the audience. 
  3. Grammar lessons – grammar knowledge pertinent to the text type are taught in engaging and meaningful ways, and then applied in the independent writing. Each year group builds upon grammar teaching from the previous year group as well as introducing new grammar knowledge relevant to the year group as per the National Curriculum’s statutory requirements. The national curriculum in England – English – Appendix 2: Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation (publishing.service.gov.uk)  
  4. WAGOLLs – this stands for ‘What A Good One Looks Like’. These are model texts which the children annotate in terms of features of the text type being studied and written, and vocabulary used.  
  5. Modelled & shared writes – modelled writes are written by the teacher where they demonstrate and voice aloud their thought process, and shared writes are when the class and the teacher create a piece of writing together. These are always written in the text type being written, but with different content to the children’s independent writing.     
  6. Plan – children plan their writing as a class/pairs/independentlyusing scaffolds/writing frames if necessary.  
  7. Independent write – children write against the purpose and audience independently. If required, writing framesare provided to help structure the writing. 
  8. Edit and proofread lesson – children proofread and edit their work either independently as ‘self-improved’ (SI) or with a peer as ‘cooperative improved’ using the ARMS and COGS approach. Children are taught the difference between editing and proof-reading as they are two different skills. To support this, each classroom displays a COGS and ARMS poster to support the children. 

Writing Outcomes/text types  

During their time at Uplands, the children will be taught to write in a range of text types. The majority of these text types are repeated across each year, but with a different purpose and audience, an increase in sentence and vocabulary complexity and a wider range of punctuation.  

To entertain To inform To persuade To discuss 
Narrative*  Description  Recount  Diary  Letter  Poetry  In role Instructions  Recount  Explanation  Poster  Biography  Newspaper report  Non-Chronological Report  Leaflet  Pamphlet  Fact File  Essay Advert  Letter  Argument  Advertising  Speech  Campaign Speech/Debate  Balanced Argument  Review    

Other ways we support your children:  

The use of ‘Alan Peat’s Exciting Sentences’. These are sentences stems/structures that are taught in the grammar lessons as a way of providing alternative ways to begin sentences and applies grammar taught within that year group.