CURRICULUM

English Writing

Writing in the Early Years

Children learn that you can communicate through writing, and that marks have meaning, by watching others write. Reception staff carefully plan opportunities for the pupils to develop the fine motor skills to grasp, hold, and strengthen fingers and thumbs by scrunching paper and using pick-up tools.  

Following the stages of early mark making,  muscle control becomes more defined and children in reception start behaving like writers, holding a pencil correctly, writing their own name, forming letters correctly and finally using their phonic knowledge to form words with meaning. Focussed teaching and carefully planned opportunities to write will ensure that by the end of the Reception year, the children are ready to being their Key Stage 1 curriculum.

 

programmes of study for writing

The programmes of study for writing at key stages 1 and 2 are constructed into:

  • Transcription (spelling and handwriting)
  • Composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing). 

Teaching develops pupils’ competence in these two dimensions. In addition, pupils are taught how to plan, revise and evaluate their writing.  Writing down ideas fluently depends on effective transcription: that is, on spelling quickly and accurately through knowing the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics) and understanding the morphology (word structure) and orthography (spelling structure) of words. 

Effective composition involves forming, articulating and communicating ideas, and then organising them coherently for a reader. This requires clarity, awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. Writing also depends on fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy handwriting

Our Vision: Be The Best We Can Be

We want our pupils to be confident, independent, high achieving learners who are prepared for the next stage of their education and can fully participate as global citizens.

We will achieve this by a commitment to providing an inclusive, safe and inspirational teaching and learning environment that promotes high expectations of all pupils.

We support one another to overcome challenges with confidence and resilience, showing respect for ourselves and each other. We celebrate hard work and effort and our successes are shared because we know that together we can achieve more.