Writing
Progression in writing
Writing is taught by building up skills year-on-year, from learning letter formation in EYFS, to basic punctuation and grammatical features in KS1 to developing language choices and sentence structures in KS2. We teach writing through English lessons, which give children the opportunity to practise using specific writing skills, building up to a piece of extended writing, which they complete independently.
Children practise their writing skills on a daily basis, across the curriculum. Extended writing is completed once every 2-3 weeks and is often linked to the overall termly theme or the class text that they children have been reading. Each year children write a variety of genres, including fiction and non-fiction, and use model texts to help them plan their own writing. Children are given the opportunity to draft their writing, using the skills they have been working on in lessons and then write their final draft, editing and improving as necessary.
The children’s skills build up over the year and during the Summer Term, they produce pieces of independent writing that include a wide range of skills taught from the year group’s curriculum.
When beginning a new writing topic, we try to ‘hook’ the children and engage them in the text by giving them a real purpose for writing, such as entering a competition, writing a letter to the headteacher about the school, etc. Where possible, we will try to plan an educational visit to inspire the children’s writing so they can complete their writing based on real-life experiences.
Spelling
In addition to this, children are taught a spelling rule each week and take home a list of spellings to learn, which will be tested the following week. Children can practise these spellings on Spelling Shed, an online programme where children play games whilst practising their spellings. In Key Stage 2, we encourage children to write sentences including their spellings to ensure they understand the meaning of the words.
Grammar and punctuation
Children in Key Stage 2 continue to revise basic grammar and punctuation skills, in addition to learning the writing skills that should be taught in each year group.
Handwriting
We teach Handwriting at least 3 times a week to ensure children are forming letters correctly and of the right size. Children begin to use our cursive, joined handwriting style in Year 3. We encourage children to take pride in their presentation throughout all areas of the curriculum.
