English - Pathways to Write

We follow a Mastery approach to English through the programme ‘Pathways to Write.’ Units of work are delivered using high quality texts and children in all year groups are given varied opportunities for writing. Skills are built up through repetition within the units, and children apply these skills in the writing activities provided. Many opportunities for widening children’s vocabulary are given through the Pathways to Write approach and this builds on the extensive work we do in school to provide our children with a rich and varied vocabulary.

You will find the end of year expectations for writing, reading and spoken language for each of our year groups in the attached documents. For further detail on the skills that your children are learning on a termly basis, please contact your class teacher.

From F2- year 6 we all engage with the high quality texts and follow a systematic approach to each unit.

Each unit covers a range of areas in the national curriculum:

Mastery of vocabulary, grammar and punctuation skills
Writing a range of genres across a year
Vocabulary development
Using a wider range of reading comprehension strategies as a whole class
Spoken language activities including drama and presentations
Opportunities for practising previously taught genres
An extended, independent piece of writing

This process follows three stages:

The Gateway (1-2 lessons)

Begin at the Gateway with a ‘hook’ session to intrigue and enthuse young writers
Use objects, people, images or role-play to stimulate questions about the chosen text
Give pupils the opportunity to predict the text
Establish the purpose and audience of the writing
Revisit previous mastery skills and ongoing skills

The Pathway (10 lessons)

Introduce pupils to three new writing skills from their year group curriculum
Provide opportunities to practise and apply the skill they have learnt through short and extended writing tasks including character descriptions, poetry, dialogue between characters, fact files or diary entries in role
Provide opportunities to re-cap and apply previously taught skills
Challenge greater depth writers through a wider range of tasks e.g. changes to form, viewpoint and audience

Writeaway (4 lessons)

Section and sequence texts independently or collaboratively
Create extended pieces of writing over time
Opportunity to apply mastery skills
Time for planning, writing, checking, editing, redrafting and publishing
A fiction or non-fiction outcome will be written (covering a wide range of genres and themes over the year)

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