By the time children leave our Early Years they will be a ‘Wow Writer’, able to “Fred Talk” words, label drawings and write short captions.
By the time children leave Key Stage 1, our children will be able to use their imagination, creativity and voice to share their ideas and express themselves on paper.
By the time children leave our school in Year 6, they will be able to use their imagination and creativity to plan, draft, compose and edit their own writing based on their experiences and literature that they read.
Above all, we aim for all children to be able to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
To find out more about our approach to teaching writing, including more details about The Write Stuff, read our Writing at PSJ document.
Before children can write, they need to develop physical core strength and dexterity by developing both fine and gross motor skills. We teach children how to grip their pencil and support this development through play and practise. This, alongside building language and supporting communication through stories and nursery rhymes, helps our youngest children develop and learn. However, writing is not just about the technical aspects of the process. As a writer, we encourage children to engage with the act of writing, be motivated to communicate their ideas, and think about what those ideas might be and how to share them.
At PSJ Primary, we have adopted “The Write Stuff” by Jane Considine to bring clarity to the mechanics of writing. ”The Write Stuff” follows a method called “Sentence Stacking” which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together chronologically and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing. An individual lesson is based on a sentence model, broken into 3 learning chunks. Each learning chunk has three sections:
Children are challenged to ‘Deepen the Moment’ which requires them to independently draw upon previously learnt skills and apply them to their writing during that chunk. “The Write Stuff” uses three essential components to support children in becoming great writers
The three zones of writing :-
We teach children how to hold their pencil, helping them to eventually be ready for a tripod grip (using their thumb, first finger and middle finger). Children are usually ready to adopt a tripod grip at 5 years old, however it is important to remember that children develop differently and that pencil grip develops in different stages.
Our progression document below outlines the detailed learning journey your child will take in writing as they move through our school.