Writing

Learning to write is a complex process that involves a variety of skills but is an extremely powerful medium. 

At St James' we encourage all our children to become “authors” in their own right, by providing  a multi-modal approach to writing.

It is vital that children are provided with ‘real’ writing opportunities which is why lots of our writing happens around the classroom and not just in books. Children are equipped with the necessary tools to do this. Alongside this creative approach, children are given daily opportunities to focus on spelling, punctuation and grammatical structures.

Our children work using a variety of real texts – the link between reading and writing is made very clear. We use The Literacy Curriculum scheme for our writing sessions from Reception to Year 2, ensuring that approach links to the strong range of texts that we use to teach reading, as well as early writing strategies from the  Read, Write, Inc scheme. 

Our writing aims are:

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Children will start to learn how to form letters correctly. They will be encouraged to use their knowledge of phonics to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds. By the end of the year, they will be expected to write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. We use Read, Write, Inc strategies such as 'Hold a Sentence; to teach pupils the skills needed to compose a simple sentence. 

Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2)

In Year 1, children will be taught to write sentences by saying out loud what they are going to write about, put several sentences together and re-read their writing to check it makes sense. They will also be expected to discuss what they have written and to read it aloud. Those who still need early writing support will continue to use strategies from Read, Write, Inc too. 

In Year 2, children learn to write for a range of purposes, including stories, information texts and poetry. Children are encouraged to plan what they are going to write and to read through their writing to make corrections and improvements.