Welcome to Writing

The impact on our children is clear: progress, sustained learning and transferrable skills. By the end of their journey at Ark Dickens Primary Academy our children leave with highly developed communication skills that they can take with them to secondary education and beyond. Success is not only achieved through children’s attainment, but through their engagement with, and enthusiasm for, the many English opportunities that have been provided throughout their time with us. Upon transition to secondary school, our children appreciate the joy and wonder of reading and are able to express preferences and opinions about the texts that they read. With the implementation of the writing journey being well established and taught thoroughly in both key stages, children become confident writers and by the time they are in Upper Key Stage 2, most genres of writing are familiar and the teaching can focus on creativity, writer’s craft, sustained writing and manipulation of grammar and punctuation skills. 

At Ark Dickens, communication skills are practised in each lesson, where talking with peers is a constant feature. English lessons, for all year groups, typically feature writing and help to develop pupils’ skills in grammar and spelling. Writing is frequently linked to topic work; this provides pupils with the opportunity to apply their writing skills in a variety of contexts. The sequence of learning draws from pupils’ initial mark making and the meaning they give to the marks they make. In EYFS, children learn synthetic phonics, which enables them to assign greater meaning to the marks they make, being able to write a grapheme at first and eventually moving on to simple sentences in relation to stories that they have learned. In Key Stage 1, these skills are further developed. A variety of genres and purposes are covered in Key Stage 1 and writing across the curriculum is expected to enable all the children to become a strong independent writer in all subjects. As they enter Key Stage 2, pupils continue to expand their knowledge of writing and the English language by developing more technically challenging grammar such as relative clauses, co-ordinating and subordinating conjunctions, using a variety of fronted adverbials. This enables pupils to be able to choose how to write for a variety of audiences whilst ensuring that their composition remains relevant to the genre type. As children develop a secure understanding and ability to independently apply their writing skills, they are further encouraged to write across the Key Stage 2 curriculum applying what they have learned to become an even better writer. 

All Year 1 subjects Next Year 1 Subject - Science

All Year 2 subjects Next Year 2 Subject - Science

All Year 3 subjects Next Year 3 Subject - Science

All Year 4 subjects Next Year 4 Subject - Science

All Year 5 subjects Next Year 5 Subject - Science

All Year 6 subjects Next Year 6 Subject - Science