Writing

Writing at St. Peters Elwick Church of England Primary School

At St. Peter’s Elwick Church of England Primary School, we know that learners use writing as a vehicle through which to express themselves and their ideas, both in and out of the classroom, in every subject across the curriculum. By improving learners’ writing skills, we will prepare them for success in wider life.

We know that developing our pupils as writers is more than just asking them to remember tricky spellings, handwriting joins or grammatical constructs. It is a process which is intricate and complicated, but if done consistently and thoroughly, gives learners a tool which is vital for their school years, across all subjects and in life after education.

Understanding 5 basic writing skills

At St. Peters Elwick/Hart we focus upon 5 basic writing skills to support and develop our children throughout the learning process.

Grammar

Grammar is the system and structure of a language and comes with certain rules. It underpins how words are put together meaningfully and sentences are constructed. When writers use grammar correctly and for effect, they can effectively communicate what they want the reader to know.

Grammar sessions take place weekly for an hour with 10 minute grammar flashes at the beginning of every English session, where teachers focus on age related and subject specific language. The children are exposed to new vocabulary regularly within English sessions and develop their understanding of the purpose and use of this vocabulary within their writing. Pupils learn about word classes, punctuation and tense so that they can convey their meaning clearly and control the impact they have on reader in order to persuade, evoke emotion and inform with authority.

Spelling and punctuation

Spelling instruction helps learners to develop a connection between letters and their sounds. It also helps learners to recognise high-frequency common exception words. Teaching students strategies for spelling supports them in communicating effectively through writing.

In EYFS and KS1, children are exposed to spelling through the use of Systematic, synthetic phonics linked to reading. They use this knowledge of phonemes and graphemes to support their understanding of spelling. In KS2, children build on this knowledge and look at the patterns and rules within the spelling of words in the English language.

Punctuation

Good punctuation allows writers to convey what they mean and enables readers to understand the intended message. Punctuation is one of the foundational aspects of grammar. It allows for us to segment thoughts and concepts, show ownership, contract words, connect words together and even control volume.

At St. Peter’s Elwick, we focus upon punctuation within the grammar sessions and grammar flashes as well as in our main English lessons.

Handwriting

Handwriting is an important skill for learners to develop. When learners can write comfortably, legibly and at a good pace, it gives them more ‘mental space’ to think about the content and creativity of their writing, as opposed to the logistics. We follow the ‘Nelson Handwriting’ scheme throughout our school.

In KS2, children continue with the Nelson scheme and progress to joining their letters correctly, enabling a fluid motion, developing speed, stamina and a neat, joined style in writing.

Sentence structure

For writing to progress, we know that children should have a good grasp of sentence structure. Throughout KS1 the basic types of sentences: simple and compound are taught, progressing to more complex sentence structures in KS2. Children will also be taught to modify sentence structure for effect – for example, by using fronted adverbials or passive voice.

Reading comprehension

The skills developed in reading and reading comprehension activities feed into many skills required for effective writing.

Please see our Reading page: https://www.hartelwickfederation.org.uk/elwick/phonicsreading/

for information on how we teach reading and support a love of literature at St. Peter’s Elwick.

Well-chosen texts across a range of genres, demonstrating a variety of writing styles provide learners with good quality models for their writing. In this way, they are exposed to rich language structures which lets them see how writing works and the effect it can have on the reader.

This includes independent reading, shared reading and the consistent promotion of reading for pleasure.

Audience, Form, Style and Purpose

We support the children to recognise the different genres of writing and their characteristics. Every new style of text is explored by identifying its audience, purpose, style and form, allowing children to understand and be familiar with the terms and the how they affect text and language choices. Children are given opportunities to become familiar with a text type and its features. They will examine the language used, sentence structure, grammatical features and layout. They will learn about the features of the text as they identify them – in this way, they form an understanding of the form of a text to prepare them for their own writing.

When learners are writing, they should be clear on who their intended audience will be. In being clear on their intended audience, learners can further develop their understanding that writing is a tool for communication and expression. And of course, writing is not limited to literacy lessons – writing is used across all subjects, which gives learners even more opportunity to write for an intended audience and purpose. The teaching of writing is more effective when learners see the purpose of it, and with an audience in mind, they can adapt their tone accordingly. We expose children to a wide variety of non-narrative, narrative and poetry texts.

Statement for SEND

St. Peter’s Elwick promotes a curriculum that puts all pupils, regardless of their needs, at the heart of what we do. By building mutual respect, we accept others for their differences believing that everyone is special and everyone has something to offer. Our inclusive and enriching curriculum, written for all children, provides pupils with meaningful and aspirational experiences as well as promoting personal growth for life-long learning. When the curriculum needs adapting, to suit the needs of individual children, appropriate modifications are made by the class teacher with support of the SENDCo and the Curriculum Subject Lead.

How can families help at home?

Continue to encourage your child to read widely and for pleasure. You can find more support with this on our ‘supporting parents with reading at home’ page: https://www.hartelwickfederation.org.uk/elwick/supporting-parents-with-reading-at-home/

Allow children to help with everyday writing such as emails, shopping lists, writing birthday cards.

Try to make sure your child has an area (no matter how big or small) where they can write, as well as the tools for writing.

Let children write about what interests them: a recipe they have helped make, a film review, a similar story to one they have read, similar lyrics to a song they have heard.

Have fun with writing together!