Subject Leader - William Kimber
What we are teaching...
As a school 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 and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing.
This approach makes sure that all of our children are exposed to high quality texts that stimulate quality responses to reading, high quality writing and purposeful speaking and listening opportunities.
Our curriculum ensures that all children have plenty of opportunities to write for different purposes. We encourage writing through all curriculum areas and use quality reading texts to model examples of good writing. Writing is taught through a number of different strategies. We believe that children need lots of rich speaking and drama activities to give them the imagination and the experiences that will equip them to become good writers.
How we teach...
Our writing policy outlines how we teach writing and the impact it has on learners.
Handwriting
We place high value on children taking pride and care over their work. We believe that legible and fluent handwriting is an essential and beneficial skill, even in the age of technology!
In the Early Years, there is a big emphasis upon gross motor skills and then fine motor skills. We use a range of resources to practice these basic skills. ‘Squiggle Whilst You Wiggle’ uses dance and large movements to help children develop the fine muscle control they need for writing. This moves into correct letter and number formation with a focus on both upper-case and lower-case letters.
Within our phonics programme ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’, there are rhymes which help the children with the formation of letters. Leading to them developing a print style of writing.
The two downloadable documents below can be used at home to support children on their journey to be able to correctly form upper-case and lower-case letters in their writing.