At Bowling Park, we know that good English skills are essential to our children’s future success, both during their time at school and as adults. At the heart of our curriculum is the belief that all children have an entitlement to be taught the skills to communicate effectively through reading, writing and speaking.

We develop writing skills by following a 3-phase approach: Reading, Crafting Great Sentences and Writing. This approach allows children to...

Reading Phase

The Reading Phase includes hooking children into their writing. This may include:

• Reading and being immersed in a high-quality model text (or other media).
• Making predictions and updating them.
• Sequencing events (particularly in narrative writing)
• Drama activities to develop inferences and explore/develop characters.
• Talk for learning: debates, discussion, persuasion etc.
• Generating vocabulary

The Crafting Great Sentences Phase

The Crafting Great Sentences phase includes analysing key features of the genre and explicit teaching and practising of relevant grammar and punctuation. Some activities which may be used are:

• Grammar party bags
• Fast writing
• Slow writing
• Improving sentences
• Noughts and crosses

During this phase, teachers model how to be writers, talking through their thought processes, and taking ideas from children as part of shared writing.

The Writing Phase

The Writing Phase gives children the opportunity to develop their craft as writers. During this phase, children receive feedback from teachers and peers to support editing and redrafting.

During this phase, children develop meta-cognitive strategies by reading their own writing aloud. They check that their writing meets the purpose and is appropriate for their chosen audience. Children assess their writing against success criteria before making edits and redrafting.