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‘If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.’
Martin Luther King
Writing is a fundamental skill that allows children to express their thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly and creatively. It enhances their problem solving and critical thinking, and helps develop organisational strategies depending on the form of the writing. It also increases decision making abilities and helps to develop research and enquiry skills. It is a creative outlet that allows children to use their imaginations – to go anywhere, to do anything.
We aim to inspire a love of writing through exposure to exciting, stimulating texts that are rich in vocabulary and that teach children how writing works and the effect it can have on the reader. Children are given a range of meaningful opportunities to write for real purposes and audiences in English and across the curriculum to tell a story, describe, inform, entertain, explain, to express ideas or persuade.
Teachers plan creative approaches to writing that build imagination and give time for oral rehearsal such as drama, hot-seating, role play and small world play. We set high expectations for all our children to take pride in their written work and to become confident and enthusiastic writers, who are ready and able to communicate effectively and coherently throughout their lives regardless of their ability, gender, ethnicity or home background.
Aims for all children:
- to see writing as purposeful and enjoyable, and understand the relevance of writing to themselves and their lives.
- to develop positive attitudes to the writing process and see themselves as confident and successful writers.
- to develop their imagination, creativity, expressive language and critical awareness through their writing.
- to have an excellent knowledge of spelling, punctuation and grammar and apply it in their writing.
- to use the knowledge and ideas gained from their reading and transfer them to their own work.
- to plan, draft, revise and edit their own work, and learn how to self and peer assess against the success criteria.
Progression in Writing Skills
Tricky Grammar and Punctuation
“My spelling is wobbly. It’s good spelling but it wobbles and
the letters get in the wrong places.” (Pooh Bear, A.A. Milne)
Spelling is an integral part of the writing process. In order for pupils to develop into effective and confident writers they need to develop and use a range of effective spelling strategies which will equip them with the independence to attempt spellings before asking for adult help. We also want children to develop effective proof reading strategies to recognise misspellings and make use of word banks or mats and dictionaries to make corrections.
We particularly want the children to develop a love of language and the confidence to spell more challenging and ambitious words. In allowing them opportunities to develop a rich and exciting vocabulary, we are enabling them to become effective communicators.
At St Bernadette’s, we follow the No Nonsense Spelling Scheme which follows the requirements of the National Curriculum (2014) and will cover all statutory elements as laid out in the English appendix for spelling. We develop our bank of spelling knowledge, learning new patterns and rules as the year progresses so that we are ready for the challenge of the next year group or key stage.
Reception and Key Stage 1
- Teaching of phonics and sounds in Reception and Key Stage 1. For more information, please see our Phonics Page.
Reception, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2
- Learning common spelling patterns
- Learning common prefixes and suffixes to words
- Learning how to spell high frequency words
- Learning about the etymology and morphology of language
Spelling Overviews
Top Tips for Practising Spellings
Our Writing Gallery
Our children work hard to produce writing for different audiences and purposes. The gallery is updated termly and acts as a showcase for the best written work produced in the school, to be displayed beyond the classroom to the wider school and visitors.
Having the children’s best work on display gives the children a purpose for writing and it also allows anyone coming into the school to see the great work that is being done by the children and the teachers in the classrooms, so it’s something of which everyone at the school is very proud.”
Our Writing Gallery
