Writing

At St Nicholas we aim for all children to: -

• be taught the key principles of writing to further develop their skills
• be immersed in a range of writing genres and styles across the curriculum
• be confident independent writers, who can build upon skills throughout their Primary Education and beyond
• have a clear understanding of purpose and audience
• have the ability to carefully select vocabulary and to think about what the desired impact on the reader

Teaching and Learning:

At St Nicholas, we ensure that children have plenty of opportunities to explore language, story and text and time to reflect upon their learning throughout the writing Journey. We use high quality texts ranging from picture books to classic authors. Children are given time to immerse themselves into books to give them the understanding of what it means to be a writer.

To support our writing journey, we follow the ‘Talk for Writing’ approach which follows 3 key areas:

• Imitate
• Innovate
• Invent

Children are provided with a range of opportunities to imitate required language and they spend  time exploring the structure and vocabulary of specially selected texts.

Key writing principles are built upon as children progress through the school.  Drama is used as a learning tool to capture the children’s interests, to engage their imagination and stimulate a writing response.  This is the innovation stage.

As the writing journey moves into the innovate stage, children are becoming more independent and drawing upon model texts to support them with their own writing.  We provide support by building in collaborative opportunities to work in groups and partners or with more direct guidance from the teacher or test.   Introductions to varying Writing styles are carefully considered enabling children to experience varying writing styles, suitable for a variety of audiences and range of purpose.

The Invent stage is the final stage of the writing Journey.  This allows the children to reflect upon their learning journey and apply their skills more independently and securely.

For more information on the Talk for Writing approach, please visit the website  talk4writing.com.