Writing in Early Years

• In September 2020 we introduced children to the RWI scheme, which included learning mnemonics to remember the formation of each letter. Letter formation begins in Pre-school with air writing and pencil control activities and then moves onto daily letter formation practice as part of a speeds sounds lesson.
• Handwriting develops according to the phonics group that a child is placed in, with handwriting moving progressively towards cursive towards the end of the scheme. 
• In the Early Years time is spent on developing children's gross and fine motor skills through daily adult led activities such as dough disco as well as through the resources that are placed into our continuous provision for children to access independently. 
• In the Early Years engaging writing activities are also planned and provided alongside the RWI scheme to inspire children to want to write independently.  
• In January 2021 we introduced the RWI writing part of the scheme for children in Reception - Year 2 in order to systematically develops the children's skills from writing words to sentences. Each colour book has an accompanying writing book with activities aimed at developing children's confidence in writing sentences as well as spelling, punctuation and grammar. Children who are in Green group and above work towards a big write at the end of a book. This is where they can use the skills they have learnt over a few days to do complete an activity independently.
• In September 2021 children in Reception will continue to follow the RWI writing part of the scheme as well as completing a range of other writing activities in class. Children in Year 1 and 2 will follow Babcock Sequences of work (Please see below)

Writing in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2

• Children in Key Stage 1 and 2 will follow Babcock Schemes of work where children will explore a given text over several weeks and in this time develop their writing through a process of 
• Teaching sequences are based around initial immersion of a quality text, with build up and understanding of key features. 
• We ensure that the teaching of writing is purposeful, robust and shows clear progression for all children. 
• In line with the new national curriculum, we ensure that each year group is teaching the explicit grammar, punctuation and spelling objectives required for that age groups. 
• Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar is taught within writing lessons or as a discrete session. ​​​​
• As well as teaching the objectives, teachers are able to embed the skills throughout the year in cross-curricular writing opportunities and ensure that children are achieving the objectives at the expected level and that children can also achieve at a greater depth
• standard.

All year groups use the same format for assessing writing which have been produced in line with the end of Key Stage assessment frameworks as published by the Department for Education.

Children develop their vocabulary and knowledge in the subjects they learn. Staff to receive vocabulary training together with CSM over the year.

Writing interventions are use to reduce gaps in learning : Early Reading, Wordblaze and Nessie