How will children be taught to write?

The week before starting a new unit of writing, the children are immersed in a challenging model text (closely matched to the purpose they will be writing for) containing the skills the children will be expected to use in the following unit of writing. 

This immersion will happen in the Daily Reading lesson - refer to Layton’s Reading Policy. This model text could be an extract from the text they’re currently reading (if appropriate) edited to contain relevant skills or an example created by the teacher; these should be chosen (refer to Key Skills in Writing document) using assessment for learning based on the needs of all children. 

Whilst closely referring to and discussing the specific audience, purpose and effect, following modelling and questioning from the teacher, the children will use the relevant planning pro forma - linked to the stage the individual child is working at. At this stage, after developing their plan, where appropriate, the children may begin testing out the skills (including sentence, vocabulary and encoding) and generating ideas in more depth that they will use during the writing process. 

The children will see the teacher model the key skills each day, where lots of discussion and adaptive question and answer sequences take place. The principles of spaced learning and interleaving are key here to ensure children see skills, and the writing process, as an interwoven thread and not as isolated entities. Revisiting key skills the children are learning daily, ensures they become embedded in their long-term memory, allowing them to focus on other elements of writing.

Writing - How can you support your child at home?

• Read to and/or with your child every day 
• Work on speaking and listening skills, ensuring children speak in full sentences 
• From the relevant word list (see high frequency word lists), practise spellings with your children.
• Create writing opportunities for your children: eg. shopping lists, letters to family, keeping a diary etc.
• Let your child see your writing, whether it’s an email, a shopping list or a diary.
• Ask your child’s teacher what they’re currently working on or what you can help with at home.