English - Writing
Amy Turner, Hana Price and Charlotte Chamberlain
English Subject Leaders
"Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic."
Albus Dumbledore (JK Rowling)
Writing
Writing is a powerful, life-long skill that enables children to find their voice, express their ideas and emotions, and make meaningful contributions to the world around them. By developing fluency and confidence in writing, children learn to communicate with clarity, purpose and creativity, allowing them to share their perspectives, build connections with others and influence change. Strong writing skills are fundamental to success across the wider curriculum, opening doors to learning, opportunity and self-expression. As confident writers, children are empowered to become active, informed members of society and are equipped with the tools they need to thrive throughout their education and beyond.
Progression in Knowledge and Skills for Writing at Floreat Montague Park
Early Years Foundation Stage
Throughout their Nursery journey, children develop their early writing skills through purposeful mark-making and a range of fine and gross motor experiences. In N1, children have weekly adult-led fine motor and dough disco sessions; this is then built upon in N2 where children participate in weekly Drawing Club sessions, alongside dough disco. These adult-led activities, combined with rich continuous and enhanced provision, support the development of the physical skills needed for writing, including hand strength, pencil control and coordination, while encouraging children to make meaningful marks with growing confidence.
Drawing Club continues into the Autumn term of Reception. In these sessions, children explore key vocabulary linked a high-quality book and practise pre-writing shapes. They also have opportunities to independently apply their learning through carefully-planned continuous and enhanced provision. As the year progresses, Reception begin using the Little Wandle handwriting scheme to practise their letter formation. They also start using Essential Writing, our whole-school English curriculum. Through this, children begin to apply their early writing skills to create their own short fiction and non-fiction books, inspired by key texts. Teachers work with small groups to support structured writing sessions throughout the week and children continue to be able to independently access additional writing provision in the classroom.
Key Stages 1 and 2
Children are taught to write using Essential Writing. This is an ambitious scheme of work which is led by high-quality literature. Through exploring key texts in detail, children write for a range of audiences and purposes, covering both fiction and non-fiction texts. Spelling and grammar are taught in context, ensuring that key skills are authentic to the piece that the children are working on. Children are also given the skills to edit and improve their own writing, before publishing their work to share with their intended audiences.
Separately to our Essential Writing lessons, children also have an explicit Spelling lesson 4x weekly. In Year 2, this follows on from phonics using the Little Wandle programme. In Key Stage 2, we transition to the Essential Spelling programme, which ties in with Essential Writing. Children first revise key phonics skills from Key Stage 1, going on to then cover all of the spelling patterns in the National Curriculum, as well as equipping children with strategies to tackle unfamiliar words.
