Writing

Our aims:
Our aim at Skelton Primary School is to inspire children to be creative, imaginative writers, who enjoy sharing their ideas on a page. Giving children the opportunity to be innovative writers will provide them with important skills such as being able to expand on their vocabulary and be able to write at length.

• In EYFS, children have opportunities for mark making in their provision with a focus on improving gross and fine motor skills. Every opportunity is taken to model effective language through child initiated activities.
• From the beginning of Reception through to Year 2, children have daily Read Write Inc sessions. Parts of each session focuses on spelling using their current phonetic knowledge. We use Fred Fingers to support the spelling of words.
• From RWI Green Books, children complete daily SPaG and writing activities based on the book they are reading. These are written in Purple Phonics Books. Once a week, children complete a ‘Big Write’ in their Red Writing Book (This is marked and the children correct in green pen).

• In KS2, children follow the Jane Considine ‘Write Stuff’ scheme. Children have daily hour writing sessions focusing on a genre over two to three weeks.

• Writing is modelled through sentence stacking lessons in which the children practise skills in their Green Jotter Books. 

• At the end of the genre, children will produce an extended piece of writing in their Red English Books.  (This is marked and the children correct in green pen).

• SPaG is taught through the different lenses on the Writing Rainbow and skills are built upon throughout the year. 
• Throughout school, children are expected to write in the cursive script and pre-cursive in EYFS. 

Writing environments: 
Each class has an English Working Wall which reflects what they are learning. Early Years and KS1 display RWI sounds and green and red words linked to the story that the children are learning about. Flipcharts are used to model writing within the lessons. 

KS2 classes refer to the Writing Rainbow within each lesson. The working walls are used to display a selection of synonyms and sentence types that children can refer to when writing. Teachers use flipcharts to model writing to the children in every lesson.

Jane Considine the ‘Write Stuff’
In KS2 we follow Jane Considine’s the ‘Write Stuff. ’ Each class focuses on the same genre over two to three weeks and each class bases their writing on a different text. Each unit begins with a series of different sentence stacking lessons and children produce an extended piece of writing using the skills that have been taught. Click here for more information about The Write Stuff.

The Writing Rainbow – A rainbow split into three tiers each one with nine lenses focusing on different elements of writing.

Sentence Stacking – Each of these lessons focuses on three different lenses from the Writing Rainbow. The children use Green Jotters to record their ideas and a variety of vocabulary on one side. On the other side, they construct a high quality sentence using a variety of structures and punctuation.

Independent Writing – At the end of each unit, children will produce a piece of extended writing in their Red English Books. This is an opportunity to showcase all the skills they have learnt throughout the current genre they are learning.

Phonics – Get Writing!
We use Read Write Inc Phonics to teach reading and writing. 

Children are organised in homogenous groups and are taught a daily speed sound session, storybook and get writing session. As part of the speed sound session children have a spelling section where they write words containing the sounds they know. They use Fred Fingers to identify the number of sounds in the word and pinch the fingers whilst saying the sound. These words are written in Purple Phonics Books. 

Children read a book at their current level and complete a variety of writing activities throughout the week based on the story. (Green – Orange follow a 3 day timetable and Yellow and Grey follow a 5 day timetable). These consist of hold a sentence, proofreading, spelling and vocabulary activities. Children then produce a ‘big write’ based on the skills they have learnt. This is done in Red Writing Books.

Check out our amazing Writing activities!