The teaching of writing at the Whiteoak Academies is planned using a ‘loops journey’ approach. Each journey is carefully crafted to ensure that there is a clear written outcome towards which the children will work. Where relevant, we aim for this final piece to have a genuine audience and purpose.

The journey begins by ensuring that the children have a strong connection with, and understanding of the chosen stimulus, be this a piece of high quality children’s literature or film. The sequence of loops are then designed to support the children as they develop the content, language and grammatical understanding to be successful in their end written piece. Often, shorter burst writes along the way, will assist the children in generating ideas or practising the application of new grammatical skills. Opportunities for talk are an integral part of the writing process.

Punctuation and grammar

The punctuation and grammar elements of the English curriculum are thoughtfully embedded within our loops journeys. This allows our pupils to apply these elements in a ‘real’ writing context rather than in a cold task.  We find with this approach, pupils are more likely to embed and retain these elements as well as appreciate their importance.