Writing in School
At Kirton Lindsey Primary School the teaching of writing skills is a focus throughout the school. Ongoing opportunities for self initiated writing, both indoors and outside, are provided in the Early Years Foundation Stage. In the teaching of writing, we aim for all children to appreciate that writing is a universal method of communication and to enjoy playing with language and writing for pleasure. This includes writing for specific, real or imaginary audiences and a cross curricular approach is adopted wherever possible, in order to give writing real life purpose and meaning, quality texts are frequently used as a stimulus.
Children are expected to write clearly, legibly and accurately with attention to punctuation, spelling and grammar according to national expectations, as stipulated in the National Curriculum. This is expected across all written work within all subjects. Teachers and Teaching Assistants model writing and give pupils oral and written feedback, which they are expected to respond to in order to improve the quality of their written work. Guided group work may be used in writing sessions to enable staff to teach specific skills, linked to different elements of writing. Children are given regular opportunities for independent writing, including ‘Golden Outcomes,’ so that they can apply skills demonstrated during guided work.
Handwriting in School
In the Early Years Foundation Stage children focus on pencil control and correct individual letter and number formation. This continues into Year 2 until children form letters and numbers correctly. Then, children are expected to begin learning letter joins, following the Nelson handwriting scheme. At Kirton Lindsey Primary School we expect children to apply their handwriting teaching across all subjects. In Year 5 and Year 6 if children are proficient, they are given a pen to complete their work.