Extended Writing
‘Writing is challenging and pupils in every subject will benefit from explicit instruction in how to improve’. Education Endowment Foundation (EEF)
Writing is challenging, for teachers and pupils alike. Writing tasks, including high stake questions in exams, can require pupils to recall and marshal large quantities of information, communicate with accuracy and group ideas in structured ways.
At St Aidan’s our pupils are provided with regular opportunities within every subject’s curriculum to transcribe, that is, physically write or type and compose, generating ideas and translating them into words, sentences and structured texts. Pupils are given explicit instruction from subject teachers in the ‘rules of writing’ in their subject discipline. Throughout every cycle pupils are provided with the opportunity to write extended pieces. The ‘Extended Writing’ pieces are unique to St Aidan’s and are opportunities for pupils to consolidate their knowledge on threshold concepts and are designed to aid pupils in fostering and refining ideas, whilst also developing composition and effect in writing so that they write like Geographers, Scientists, and ultimately subject specialists. Pupils are ‘supported to the top’ in their writing with modelling and scaffolding underpinning the learning. Please see examples of some of our pupils’ work below:
