At Robert Ferguson Primary School we aim to deliver a writing curriculum that is engaging, aspirational and inclusive so that all children become confident writers. Writing makes a significant contribution to the development of children as thinkers and learners. Writing is a way of communicating our thinking to others. In school this can be through fiction, poetry and non-fiction, across all areas of the curriculum. In life this can be through email, letters, reports, lists, etc. It is imperative that children learn to write and communicate effectively, as this is an important life skill.

Watch our short video about writing featuring an interview with author Philippa Gregory.

In Nursery and Reception, we develop children's gross motor skills - through movement, bikes and scooters, using paintbrushes, using playground equipment and we develop children's fine motor skills - through threading activities, using play-dough, scissors, etc. These motor skills are important for children's physical development and allow them to develop the skills to write. We teach children to use an effective pencil grip, to sit up straight and face forwards when writing. This begins with mark making and moves on to using capital letters to start sentences, full stops to end sentences and finger spaces between words.

In KS1 (years 1 and 2), we embed these basic skills and further develop them, teaching question marks and exclamation marks. We also begin to teach grammar skills - plurals, adjectives, nouns, noun phrases. By the end of year 2, children should be able to write legibly using paragraphs and including the grammar and punctuation taught in the infants.

In KS2 (years 3-6), children are taught further grammar and punctuation skills and are also taught how to use content to engage the reader. These are taught through explicit skills lessons, alongside use of quality texts which model these skills and engaging content.

Curriculum Content

In writing lessons we:

• encourage children to write for a variety of purposes and audiences;
• teach children the craft of writing;
• use high quality books and texts as stimuli for writing;
• use quality texts as models for our extended writing where we look closely at the style, technique and vocabulary choices of the author;
• practise writing in a variety of contexts;
• develop positive attitudes to the writing process including planning and redrafting;
• collaborate and support each other to compose and revise writing;
• support improvement and high expectations of core skills i.e. spelling, grammar and punctuation;
• provide feedback to children which helps them improve their writing skills;
• maintain and develop a high writing ethos at all stages in the school through publishing writing to share with others.