Children in Early Years use their emergent writing skills in their classroom provision areas. They are taught letter formation and how to hold a pencil correctly. Children begin to use their phonic knowledge to write simple phrases.
Writing
Vision Statement for English
Rossett Acre’s vision for English is to engender a life-long love of language and communication through the use of purposeful teaching, using bespoke, immersive activities which inspire, interest and excite the children. This will result in motivated writers and children who enjoy reading for pleasure.
Whole School Approach
To ensure consistency through school, we teach writing throughout key stage 1 and 2 using the Rossett Acre Writing Process as outlined here. It is so important to gather ideas before the writing process by reading high quality texts and extracts so that children can develop their vocabulary and writing style. Grammar and sentence structure is then taught in the drafting stage so that children focus on crafting the best sentences they can for their work.
Revise and Edit
From KS1, children are encouraged to propose changes to their writing to improve what they have written. This includes changes to vocabulary, grammar and punctuation to enhance effects and clarify meaning. Children are taught how to edit and revise work using the Cups and Arms approach. Children are also given personal targets to improve their writing; these are monitored every time children write.
Book Based Writing
Fiction, non-fiction and poetry are the stimulation for most of our writing at Rossett Acre. Children are immersed in a text and are taught key skills of grammar and sentence structure using a book based stimulus. You can see some of the books which are used in our writing lessons in the overview of writing units for Y1-6.
Thematic Writing
At Rossett Acre, children write extensively in cross-curricular activities. Children in Year 6 write biographies of Ringo Starr; Year 5 children write persuasively about current issues whilst in Year 3 children write non-chronological reports and poems about bears.
Writing in Early Years
Writing in KS1
Children are immersed in fairy tales and purposeful activities to help develop their writing skills. This starts with simple instructions and writing captions before moving onto writing whole texts. Teachers are very creative in their approach which helps foster a desire to write
English in Lower Key Stage 2
Themes in LKS2 such as The Iron Man and WW2 permeate the writing curriculum. Grammar and punctuation is embedded within the thematic writing. Children expand their repertoire of narrative to include myths, quests and historical fiction
English in Upper Key Stage 2
Children fine-tune their writing in UKS2, putting the reader at the heart of their writing. They write biographies about twentieth century icons, complex narratives which include flashback as well as a range of non-fiction genres. Extending vocabulary is key at this stage.
