Learning to write coherently, concisely and correctly is an essential part of a child’s development in English.  At Broad Chalke, our writing is usually rooted in ‘the world of the book’ where children write about familiar settings, characters or information. Our experience is that this enthuses pupils and engages them in their writing.

We teach children to write from the very first day they join us at Broad Chalke. Pupils’ journeys as writers begin in EYFS where they develop an understanding of how to accurately hold a writing tool and use phonics for spelling. As pupils enter Year 1, their knowledge of what makes an accurate sentence is developed and children learn about the importance of using simple punctuation (such as capital letters and full stops) to make their meaning clear.

In Year 2, pupils develop a greater understanding of how to add depth and detail to sentences and build upon their knowledge related to spelling and punctuation. Children also learn about how to link sentences.

In Key Stage 2, pupils learn an enormous amount about grammar and how sentence structures can be manipulated in order to make writing increasingly sophisticated and engage their reader. Our aim is for our children to consider the impact of their punctuation, grammar and word-choice upon the reader and how this creates effective communication.

We believe that talk is an important part of the writing process and we’ve recently introduce the ‘ABC’ talk stems. Check out the poster below to learn more about how we are encouraging pupils to orally rehearse ideas before writing.