At Delta, we believe that writing is a fundamental skill that every child must develop to unlock their full potential. Writing is not just about putting words on paper, it is a powerful tool for self-expression, critical thinking and communication. Through writing, children learn to articulate their thoughts, share their ideas and connect with others in meaningful ways. It enhances their ability to understand and engage with the world around them.

As a school, we have adopted the highly effective approach, which is Pie Corbett’s Talk for Writing. His method places the children at the heart of the planning, teaching and learning process, with a strong focus on oral storytelling as a foundation for mastering their writing skills. It is this focus and development in oracy that caters brilliantly to the diverse learning needs of the children at Delta; effectively supporting all learners, including those with English as an Additional Language (EAL) and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). By using this approach consistently across the school, our children will not only become skilled writers, but will also become talented speakers, listeners, readers and thinkers.

The underpinning Talk for Writing Process allows children to explore a variety of genres in depth, using high-quality texts as a stimulus for the children to plan, revise and evaluate their writing whilst developing a crucial awareness of the audience and the purpose of their work.  This in-depth study, usually spans across three weeks, allows for a more secure understanding of generic language patterns and a better opportunity for the children to develop their own internal writer’s voice. Within the process, children are navigated through three stages: Imitation, Innovation and Invention.

 Stage 1: The Imitation Phase

In this phase, students immerse themselves in a high-quality model text. The teacher reads the text aloud, encouraging students to join in and become familiar with the structure, language and rhythm. Through repeated exposure, students internalise the text's patterns and vocabulary. This stage often involves activities like story mapping, where students create visual representations of the text and oral retelling, where they practise recounting the story using their own actions and words.

Stage 2: The Innovation Phase

Once students have a solid grasp of the model text, they move on to the innovation phase. Here, they use the original text as a scaffold to create their own versions. This phase involves making deliberate changes to the story while maintaining its core structure. For instance, students might alter the characters, settings or key events. This process encourages creativity and helps students understand how to manipulate narrative elements effectively. Teachers guide students through shared writing exercises, where the class collaborates to generate new ideas and craft a modified story together.

Stage 3: The Invention Phase

The final stage is the invention phase, where students apply what they've learned to produce original pieces of writing. By this point, they have developed a deep understanding of narrative techniques and structures. In this phase, students independently plan, draft, and revise their stories, drawing on the skills and strategies they've acquired. Teachers provide support through individual feedback and conferencing, helping students refine their work and enhance their writing proficiency.

 As many children have low English Acquisition on entry, developing vocabulary is of paramount importance at Delta.  Therefore, we integrate Word Aware into every writing lesson to ensure our children develop a rich and varied vocabulary, which is essential for effective communication and academic success. Word Aware is a comprehensive approach that focuses on explicit vocabulary teaching, helping students to understand and use new words confidently in their writing. By incorporating Word Aware strategies, alongside Talk for Writing, we provide our students with the tools to expand their language repertoire, improve their writing quality, and express their ideas more clearly.

Within their writing lessons, our children are immersed in a range of high-quality texts that develop their understanding of the variety of genres and their purposes.  At the beginning of each lesson, retrieval activities take place to ensure key concepts in grammar, spelling and text types are regularly revisited and understood. Subsequently, the children will revisit their Word Aware vocabulary for that week. This daily repetition of the new vocabulary ensures that the children have fully understood the meaning of the word and as the week progresses, will be able to use it more confidently and in the correct context.  At Delta,  the writing then leads onto the ‘I do, we do, you do’ approach to effectively teach writing skills. Initially, during the "I do" phase, the teacher demonstrates the writing process, thinking aloud to model how to plan, draft, and edit a piece of writing. In the "we do" phase, the teacher and pupils collaborate, writing together and sharing ideas, allowing students to practise with guided support. Finally, in the "you do" phase, pupils apply what they have learned independently, creating their own pieces of writing while the teacher provides feedback and support as needed. This scaffolded approach ensures that students build confidence and competence in their writing skills. To support them further during these lessons, all classes have Register Continuums and Everyday Toolkits clearly displayed on their working walls for them to be referred to throughout the lessons. The Register Continuum encourages children to think carefully about the audience and purpose of their writing and subsequent language choices they may use.  Everyday Toolkits provide children with a visual checklist of things to include in their writing that are relevant to all genres. Across the school, these Everyday Toolkits show clear progression and help develop children’s writing further year on year. Whilst exploring a genre in depth, children will have a further success criteria which includes a grammar target, a genre-specific target and a word aware target. 

At Delta, our spelling scheme is designed to develop students' spelling abilities year on year. Each week, students receive a new set of spellings to practise, following the Spelling Shed program. To further extend and challenge our students, we also incorporate Word Aware activities, enriching their vocabulary and deepening their understanding of word meanings and usage. This dual approach ensures that our students not only become proficient spellers but also develop a robust and versatile vocabulary.

In order to achieve high quality teaching of writing at Delta, our writing lead works closely with staff to improve and secure their practice. They provide expert guidance as well as 1-1 coaching where needed. Best practice and new initiatives are shared through regular staff meetings and the writing curriculum is monitored closely to ensure texts are relevant and engaging. Our writing curriculum has been carefully curated in order to support all our learners in developing their writing skills.  Where needed, our teachers adapt their input and resources accordingly.  This can range from simplifying the text- using different vocabulary or grammatical structures- to using colourful semantics and dual-coding. Additionally, our teachers provide continuous feedback to ensure that each student receives the encouragement and guidance they need. These strategies create an inclusive learning environment where all children can reach their full potential.