Writing
At Tenterfields Primary Academy, our intent is that ALL our learners will become confident, fluent writers who are able to use the wide range of writing tools they have accessed and developed whilst on their writing journey with us.
At Tenterfields Primary Academy, we ensure that all learners see themselves as writers. We implement ‘The Write Stuff’ teaching model from Reception through to Year 6 with results that we are enormously proud of. The Write Stuff is the work of the teacher, author and education consultant Jane Considine.
The Write Stuff brings clarity to the mechanics of writing and provides clear systems through which to focus the writer’s attention.
The combination of fiction and non-fiction units we have carefully selected to follow provide children throughout their journey with the experience of a wide range of high quality texts and authors. In our lessons, teachers follow a repeated pattern of ‘Initiate’, ‘Model’ and ‘Enable’ whereby they use the three zones of writing to provide a consistent whole school systematic approach to writing carefully constructed sentences.
The Fantastics offer 9 lenses with which to structure ideas and target children’s thinking. This supports learners in developing variety in their writing by focussing on the vocabulary used, initiating ideas, provoking thoughts and igniting imaginations.
Watch Jane Considine explaining the FANTASTICS .
The 9 GRAMMARISTICs cover national curriculum requirements, capturing the broad spectrum of key grammar knowledge. Discrete grammar sessions are also taught to ensure specific grammar knowledge is taught and revisited. A grammar long term plan for each year group is used to ensure consistency and progression through school.
The Boomtastics focus on the art of writing, using a range of literary devices and techniques to make careful choices, playing with language to add flair to our writing and achieve various intentional impacts on our reader, painting vivid pictures through our word choices.
High expectations are coupled with careful monitoring and scaffolding, ‘holding the hands’ of our learners and looking at the structure of a sentence so that they feel ready to write independently using the wide range of writing tools they have been trained to use.
Acquisition of language is of vital importance to us at Tenterfields and through our writing lessons we aim to support learners in widening their vocabulary and accessing language at least 18 months beyond that that they may use naturally. We achieve this through techniques such as ‘Picture Power’, ‘Shades of Meaning’ and focussing on the ‘Intent’ of a sentence.
We expect that the impact of ‘The Write Stuff’ will mean that throughout their time at Tenterfields, learners will be respected as an individual writer, provided with regular opportunities to make individual choices and encouraged to develop their own creativity. Regular practise of key writing skills will provide children with the confidence to apply these in a range of independent situations whereby they have the chance to show what they have internalised.
Handwriting
On entry, our EYFS learners are involved in varied activities to develop essential pre-writing skills in line with the Early Learning Goals. There is much focus on developing gross and fine motor skills and strengthening muscles in the arms and fingers. We use ‘Dough Disco’, ‘Funky Fingers’ and many playdough activities to increase muscle strength. Children are also introduced to the individual letters through ‘Kinetic Letters’ and rigorously taught correct formation from the very beginning of their time in school. From the time that children are ready, they are taught to sit with a good posture and are taught to hold a pencil with the correct grip.
At Tenterfields, we use ‘Kinetic Letters’ to teach joined handwriting using a cursive script. Handwriting is taught daily from Year 1 to Year 6. All children initially write with a pencil, moving on to using a pen when they are ready.
The Jumper Family Story
Bounce and Skip spend all day jumping down-bump from the branches of their tree!
Bounce jumps from the high branch and makes the letter trail for h and b.
Skip jumps from the low branch and makes the letter trail for r, n, m and p.
But...when Skip jumps down to make p, he gets a surprise! Instead of going bump, he falls on down into a pit that has a spider!
He jumps back up, pushing the cobwebs off to make the p letter trail!
The Abracadabra Family Story
Scared Monkey Skip finds a magician who waves his wand and shouts 'Abracadabra' and makes lots of different letters appear under the lower branch of the tree.
The magician teaches Scared Monkey the magic trick. He shows him that for each of the letters, he can pull around to write c, shout 'Abracadabra' and then magic it into o, a, d, g, q, or s.
The Scared Monkey makes all the letters start from his branch.
The Window Cleaner Family Story
The Monkeys find themselves in a city standing by a shop window! They watch two window cleaners making marks as they dry the windows. The pull the squeegees down the windows and flick the water off at the bottom!
The window cleaners let the Brave Monkey climb the ladder, pull the squeegee down the window, bump the ground and flick the water off! This makes a l and the t.
Scared Monkey is nervous about climbing the ladder so he stays on the ground and makes an i and u.
The Fisher Family Story
One day there is a huge storm in the jungle which makes the river flood the spider's pit. Bounce the Brave Monkey and Skip the Scared Monkey sit in their tree and watch the fish swim around in the pit. Skip discovers that if he sits on his branch and dangles his tail in the water, he can pull his tail around to catch the fish!
The Slider Family Story
One exciting day the magician waves his wand and takes Brave Monkey and Scared Monkey to see the snow!
Skip the Scared Monkey finds a snowy mountain slope and says 'I can slide down and slide up'. When he does this he can make the letters v, w, x and z.
Bounce the Brave Monkey goes to help the baby penguins who have lost their beaks! The penguins stand in line whilst the monkey fixes them back on and this makes the k!
The Special Squirter Story
A big storm has flooded the pit under the monkeys' tree. The mole rats are upset, as this is where they live.
First Skip rescues the fish that have been washed into the pit. Next he asks the elephant to help by sucking the water up in his trunk and squirting it back into the river.
Skip helps by holding the trunk and squirting it under his branch, leaving a letter trail of water behind in the air.
Assessment
As a trust, we have broken down the end of KS1 and KS2 Teacher Assessment Framework statements and combined these with the National Curriculum expectations for writing to create a checklist to assess writing in each year group across school.
WAT English Writing Assessment Framework