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Writing

 

From their early years at Belmont, children are encouraged to write for a variety of purposes and audiences.  They are also taught how to present their writing in a way that is appropriate to the purpose.  Children are encouraged to see writing as a means to communicate with others and to develop this skill informally as well as formally.  As children progress through to Year 1 and beyond, writing activities are given meaningful contexts, often linked to other subjects of the curriculum within the cross-curricular topics.  Children are taught to understand the features of a variety of genres and to use these with increasing competence in their own writing.

 

When writing, the children are encouraged to “have a go” from the beginning, writing the sounds and words they know to communicate their developing vocabulary and ideas.  Skills such as grammar, spelling, punctuation and handwriting are taught in a structured way so that these skills can be applied to writing with increasing fluency and accuracy. 

 

Phonics (the sounds made by letters and groups of letters) are taught in regular sessions through the Early Years and Key Stage 1 (Nursery to Year 2) via the Letters and Sounds programme and this supports the development of both reading and spelling.  Children develop their understanding not only of phonics but also of concepts such as rhyme, blending sounds to make a word and separating a word into its component sounds.  Suggestions are given to parents via class homework letters as to how they can support this programme at home.  This practice is built on further up the school as children explore more complex letter patterns, prefixes and suffixes.  Emphasis is placed on correcting common errors, expanding vocabulary and developing spelling strategies.  From Year 2 children are expected to practise spellings and letter patterns at home using the 'Look, Cover, Write, Check' method; these lists form the basis of weekly spelling tests. 

 

Grammar and punctuation are taught more formally from Year 2, with children learning how to construct and develop different forms of sentences and make these clear to the reader with accurate punctuation. Children are expected to evaluate their own or others' work, consider ways to improve it and sometimes draft and redraft before editing and publishing.  At the editing stage they are encouraged to focus upon their own spellings and, making use of word banks or dictionaries, to make corrections with teacher support.  They are also taught to check their punctuation and grammar and to develop their use of vocabulary through the use of thesauruses or class displays.  Conferencing, sharing work with the teacher or others and discussing it enables them to look at ways to improve the style and structure of their work at the editing stage.

 

Handwriting is another skill that is taught during identified teaching sessions, and individually, according to need. We have recently introduced a new cursive handwriting style. In early years the children begin by learning to form unjoined lower case letters. From KS1 onwards, when the children are ready, they begin to join the letters.  By the end of Year 2 the expectation is that children should be forming and joining all letters correctly. Once letter formation is secure children are encouraged to use joined writing regularly for all written work.

In KS2 once children’s writing is fluent, and they are joining consistently and evenly, pens are introduced.  However, written work is also published using the computer and may take the form of a poetry, prose or presentation slides and notes to accompany an oral presentation. You can read a copy of our handwriting guidelines by clicking here.