At Thythorn Field we follow the Read to Write scheme from Literacy Counts. It is based on high quality books and texts. Each unit covers all the areas of the National Curriculum for that particular year group. 

When we write, we bring together many different skills, and it is the same in the teaching of writing.

In all classes, teachers introduce new knowledge and skills appropriate to the age of the children. Over the year, pupils will apply the knowledge and skills in exercises, with support, but then in their own independent writing. If children have great ideas and imagination for writing, that's brilliant, but the emphasis throughout primary schools is now more on controlling the technical aspects of writing. 

Grammar

Children are taught the different ways in which words build up to make sentences, They learn different tenses, simple and complex sentences and how longer sentences are made from clauses. They are expected to know the technical terms for the different parts of a sentence. 

Punctuation

From Foundation Stage, children are taught to notice and start to use full stops in reading and writing. The punctuation marks guide how a piece of writing should be read and help you understand better. 

Spelling

Being able to spell correctly is a useful life skill. To some people with good visual memories, spelling comes easily; others struggle to spell even basic words. The good news is that most children can improve their spelling with regular practice, talking about how words are formed and sometimes the use of a spellchecker or dictionary. 

In the early years, phonics is the method used to teach children how to spell most words. In groups, pupils practise writing words that have a phonics pattern in common - like hair, fair, dairy, fairy. They learn how to spell longer words in chunks. 

From year 2 onwards, children are expected to say the name of letters rather than the phonemes. They are taught visual methods to help them remember words, they compare different spelling patterns for the same sound - caring, tearing, airing and they work on homophone words that sound the same but are spelled differently - deer/dear.

Learning spellings at home for tests can play a part in developing accurate spelling, but teachers want to see children applying what they have learned in all their writing. For this reason, pupils are sometimes capable of learning words like 'tarantula' but really need to become more secure in spelling words like 'when' or 'our'.

Writing Fiction

In all classes, children listen to, retell and write their own versions of traditional stories and other books for children. It is really helpful if children read widely, including knowing lots of rhymes.

Rhyming poetry

Shape poems

Descriptive poems

Traditional stories and fairy tales

Adventure and mystery stories  

Fables, Myths and Legends

Historical stories

Plays

Stories from different cultures 

Stories in the style of a significant author 

Writing Non-Fiction

In KS2 particularly, there is more emphasis on children writing different non-fiction text types.

This may include:

Instructions

Balanced argument

Persuasive texts

Newspaper reports

Non-chronological reports

Explanations

Letters

Recounts

Diary entries

Information texts

Biography and autobiography