Rationale

Writing has two dimensions – composition and transcription. Both are necessary for independent writing.

Composition - pupils need to be able to use their expressive language skills to communicate what they want to write.

Transcription – pupils need to know how to spell the words and how to form letters in the words (handwriting).

At the Bridge school, writing is interpreted as an activity that communicates and records events, experiences, information, thoughts and feelings. Teachers identify the most appropriate form of recording for the individual pupils in their class according to their needs, for example, using objects, picture, photographs, symbols and text, drawing, typing and ICT, working with an adult as a scribe or a combination of these.
 

Consistent systems and strategies are implemented throughout school by all staff, to support pupils’ engagement in writing across the whole curriculum. These strategies are in identified in our school English policy.

In addition, all staff understand the early elements of writing and small steps to develop handwriting skills, including gross and fine motor skills development. Writing lessons are highly personalised and may incorporate gross motor movement activities, fine motor tasks, making marks in a wide range of media and with different writing tools or using appropriate supporting visuals to engage pupils in letter formation and handwriting tasks.

In school, we provide a wide range of equipment and strategies that can be used to adapt writing activities to make it accessible for all the pupils. For example, assistive technology including eye-gaze, Colourful Semantics (Alison Bryan,1997), the use of low-tech and high-tech communication systems (communication books/ symbols/visual sequencing strips) are just some examples of the resources/interventions that can be used to support composition and transcription for our pupils.

Examples of our work in Writing!

Curriculum Progression Map

There is a curriculum progression map in place for all subjects. These can be discussed with Sam Bourton (Curriculum Lead) on request.