Writing at Hillstone
We know what an important skill writing is and pride ourselves on teaching it in a way that produces successful writers who are keen to express themselves and confident in doing so. Throughout the school, we value an approach we call ‘Writing for Real’ – this means that when children write, they are not just writing for their teacher. Instead, they have some real (or seemingly real!) reason for writing and someone other than their teacher reading their work.
How it works
Here are a few examples of ‘Writing for Real’ in practice to give you a flavour of this approach:
– An animated message (made by one of the teachers) from a book character is received, asking the class for their help – they may need instructions writing or the children to retell a known story in their own words.
– The children have a real-life event to write for. For instance, they may want to promote awareness of the importance of bees and produce writing to be displayed at one of our farmers’ markets.
– Someone needs persuading about something! It could be convincing the local museum to let us borrow some Ancient Egypt artefacts, or writing about a book to convince others to read it too.
We are sure you will enjoy hearing about these writing opportunities from your children.
Early Years
Writing in EYFS
Just as with reading, there are key skills that need developing before children begin to work on what many of us would think of as writing. Children must have good fine motor skills. We provide lots of opportunities for the children to practise these skills in order for them to have the strength and dexterity to hold and use a pencil. Speaking and listening are also crucial – a child needs to be able to say something before they can write it.
When children are ready, we begin teaching them how to form their letters, making use of the rhymes provided by the RW Inc phonics scheme to help children remember these. We focus carefully on exactly how children form their letters (in other words, whether they are starting the letter in the right place and moving the pencil the correct ways after that) rather than whether it simply looks right once it has been done.
How it works
We teach them how to use their phonics skills to help them spell many words, but also teach them that some words are tricky to spell using phonics, so need to be learnt in a different way. Obviously, not all words will be spelt correctly to start with, but we praise children for applying their phonics knowledge.
It is important that children understand that writing is a way of recording our thoughts and sharing them with others, so before children are ready to write their own sentences, adults will sometimes scribe their ideas for them.
Our ‘Writing for Real’ approach really helps with children seeing writing as purposeful. It also helps motivate them to want to write and supports them with generating ideas that they want to record.
Plenty of support is offered when children do start writing sentences as we know how many different skills children are bringing together to do this. Support can take many forms, including lots of talk before writing, having an adult to hand to support and advise, and having word banks to refer to.
KS1
Writing in KS1
Via our RW Inc Phonics programme, children take part in regular morning writing lessons. They also develop their writing in afternoon sessions where their writing will link to their topic. When they have completed the phonics programme, they will have daily English lessons which offer a careful mix of reading and writing.
As their phonics knowledge grows, their spelling ability increases too. However, just as in Early Years, there are ‘key words’ to learn in a different way. As well as this, we also introduce some basic spelling rules and patterns.
How it works
In terms of handwriting, we ensure all lowercase and capital letters can be formed correctly, and that they are appropriately sized and placed on the line (so, for instance, a lowercase will sit on the line). In Year 2, some basic joins are introduced to children.
Children develop their sentence-writing skills, learning how to write longer sentences and how to make sure their sentences follow on from one another. We also work on their writing being effective by choosing their words carefully. Finally, they learn to write in different ways, such as stories (to entertain), instructions (to instruct) and accounts of what they, or someone famous has done (to recount what happened).
Our learning documents (further down the page) detail the specifics of what is learnt each year.
Our ‘Writing for Real’ approach continues to offer a motivating and effective way to teach writing.
KS2
Writing in KS2
Having started learning about joining in Year 2, children learn to join their handwriting consistently and quickly whilst in KS2. However, this does not mean having to join together every single letter in every single word!
Phonics still plays a big part in children’s spellings, but more rules and patterns are also introduced, as well as further ‘key words’ for each year group.
As they move through KS2, they will expand their range of sentence structures and learn how to use a greater range of punctuation. The vocabulary they use will also grow, and is supported by our reading curriculum.
How it works
Children’s writing becomes increasingly sophisticated as they become more aware of the different ways we write depending on who we are writing for and why, and learn to write for a wider range of purposes than in KS1. They also begin to blend together a range of purposes in a piece of writing – for instance, a set of instructions might be prefaced by a persuasive introduction, designed to entice the reader to want to follow the instructions in the first place.
Proofreading (checking for, and correcting, errors) is worked on in every year group, but as children get older, we also expect more of them in terms of editing their work, which is all about making their writing more effective for the reader.
Our learning documents (further down the page) detail the specifics of what is learnt each year.
Writing tasks continue to be underpinned by our ‘Writing for Real’ approach.
For all
Writing for all
Some children are identified as having special educational needs (SEN) in writing. What they focus on in writing lessons will be driven by what their class teacher, in coordination with our SEN Coordinator, identifies as the most important next steps for their learning.
In turn, this may mean that they work on a different task from the rest of the class or receive targeted support during the lesson. In addition, extra time during the week may also be spent working on this area with the child in what we refer to as interventions.
Other children are identified as being gifted and talented (G&T) in writing. The class teacher will identify ways in which to suitably challenge them in writing, blending together learning they need from their age-appropriate curriculum with specific learning (referred to as ‘working deeper’) objectives which have been developed especially for such children.
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