Intent – why we teach what we teach

At DCE, we want to instil a love of writing in the children we teach so they are motivated and enthused to write for a range of purposes and audiences. We provide a writing curriculum that provides children with the opportunity to develop their writing stamina and express their ideas. They will be equipped to:

• write cohesively and coherently
• express their ideas creatively
• use appropriate and ambitious vocabulary
• understand how to use and apply a range of grammatical structures
• accurately use age-appropriate punctuation
• use spelling strategies
• use consistent letter formation with appropriate sizing that leads to high quality presentation.

We believe it is important that pupils can communicate their ideas clearly in their writing but also orally. They will often participate in group activities (including role play and other drama activities) to share ideas and they are also encouraged to read their work aloud.

As part of the writing process, children are taught how to plan, revise and evaluate their work. We place emphasis on reading and checking work carefully for errors (age-appropriate). We want pupils to be able to recognise spelling and punctuation errors and edit these where appropriate. If children are able to do this, they are developing their independence and confidence with writing.