Writing
At Adswood Primary School our vision is that children will become confident, capable, enthusiastic writers who develop a genuine love for writing. They will use writing to express themselves and communicate to others and will write independently for a range of purposes. They will be become critical thinkers by reflecting on their own writing and their peers.
Writing begins with the physical development of fine and gross motor skills to enable children to pick up a pencil and begin to mark making leading to creative and confident writers through the primary years. Our learners are inspired by our ‘Adswood Authors’; these are the authors or poets who write the texts that we follow as part of our LCC Focus Education topics. We display images of them in class and discuss other books or texts that our learners may be familiar with or may wish to read in the future. We also offer the opportunities for our learners to work with real ‘Adswood Authors’ through author visits. We have enjoyed working with Sarah Oliver and Daniel Henshaw in the past and are hoping to invite them in to school again soon! We also provide the opportunity for our learners to take part in virtual workshops.
In EYFS, these skills are developed through play based learning and activities such as ‘Jump start Jonny’ to develop core body strength and ‘Dough disco’ to strengthen the muscles in children’s hands. In both FS1 and FS2 we have a ‘Finger Gym’ where children can complete a variety of challenges that are all aimed at developing their fine motor skills. Across the EYFS we encourage children to write by firstly encouraging them to mark make. This might be with big chalks on the playground, with paint brushes dipped in water or experimenting with different textures e.g. sand/shaving foam. We are constantly modelling and exposing children to writing in continuous provision and taught sessions with the intention of encouraging children to form recognisable letters starting with those that are in their names.
We complement our Literacy teaching with ‘Tales Toolkit’ which the children’s imagination thrives on. ‘Tales Toolkit’ allows children to truly grasp the meaning of Characters, Settings, Problems and Solutions.
Motor skills are developed further through handwriting, this is taught from Reception through to Year 6. Learners in lower school have their own handwriting books which demonstrates how their writing progresses from mark marking through to cursive script and in upper school learners are supported to develop a cursive style which is evidenced every time they write.
In our Phonics lessons we follow the Read, Write Inc scheme.This helps to support children to transfer sounds to print. Children are then encouraged to use their phonic knowledge in their writing. The scheme is a phased approach introduced in FS1 and continued through to Year 2. From Year 3 through to Year 6 children follow the Headstart Spelling scheme which covers spelling strategies and methods for learning commonly misspelt words for each year group.
From Year 1 – 6 we follow FOCUS Education’s Literacy scheme and use a recommended, age appropriate texts to generate our own pieces of writing. These texts/authors/poets are used to inspire the children to write a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry throughout the year. In the classroom, we use 'Writing Ladders' to build up skills and understanding before asking children to write independently and our English Working Walls are constantly updated and adapted to reflect learning within our classrooms.
Furthermore, as a school we feel it is important to boost children’s confidence and self-esteem. Therefore, we showcase our best pieces of writing on our WOW Walls and share our writing with parents/carers via Seesaw.
