Writing at Corby Glen Community Primary School

We don't want our children at Corby Glen to write … we want them to become writers! Our aim is to ensure all children become competent writers who enjoy writing for a variety of purposes and audiences adapting their language and authorial style. 

How do we teach writing at Corby Glen?

In Reception, children start to make meaningful marks and develop their fine motor skills through using writing materials in their child initiated play. At these early stages and into KS1, we also introduce Talk4Writing. The Talk for Writing approach enables children to read and write independently for a variety of audiences and purposes within different subjects. A key feature is that children internalise the language structures needed to write through ‘talking the text’ as well as close reading. The approach moves from dependence towards independence with the teacher using shared and guided teaching to develop the ability in children to write creatively and powerfully. The Talk for Writing approach enables children to imitate orally the language they need for a particular topic, before reading and analysing it, and then writing their own version.

How do we teach spelling, punctuation and grammar?

As part of our English lessons, our children learn how to use the tools o f English in our 'Active English' sessions. Grammar  and punctuation is taught through these sessions by  introducing the parts of speech such as nouns, adjectives and adverbs through character cards. These are identified in the context of reading,  practised in guided writing and are  embedded to allow children to experiment with sentence structures that match audience and purpose. It uses the principles of mnemonics to embed learning in an active and engaging way, providing pupils with a deeper grasp of language that serves as a foundation for their future.

Spelling is taught through Read Write Inc phonics in EYFS and KS1 and is reinforced by using the speed sounds chart in our classes. Children are taught spellings three times a week and each week they focus on a different spelling pattern. Spelling shed is used to help children learn these spellings and reinforces the spelling patterns learnt in school.

How do we teach handwriting at Corby Glen?

We introduce our Letterjoin handrwriting scheme right from the start when you child is learning how to write individual letters and their name. To begin with the letters are formed with entry and exit points ready to join in the cursive style.

As your child moves into Y1 and Y2, they will be taught how to join letters using the Letterjoin cursive style. This is taught in discrete handwriting sessions and is reinforced in all our children's writing.

What should my child be achieving in writing?

In your child's first year in school in their Reception year, your child will be working towards the Early Learning Goals. By the end of this year, our aim is for your child to have met the Early Learning Goal below:

Children use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also write some irregular common words. They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible.

The documents below set out the age related expectations your child will be working towards over each year group in school. By the end of each year, our aim is for your child to have met these expectations: