Writing

At Horwich Parish, we teach writing through engaging half-termly projects. Carefully selected fiction and non-fiction texts inspire children to develop new knowledge, skills and understanding, which they then apply through a range of meaningful writing opportunities across the curriculum.

We recognise the importance of purpose and audience and carefully plan opportunities within each writing unit to engage and motivate children. We want our pupils to understand that writing has a real purpose and can be used to inform, entertain, persuade, explain and communicate with others.

How Parents and Carers Can Help Their Child

Children take part in a wide range of literacy activities at school, including writing, reading, handwriting and phonics. However, there are also lots of enjoyable and meaningful ways that you can support your child at home.

Supporting writing does not have to mean completing pages and pages of work. Talking, reading, playing games and using writing in everyday situations can all help children to become confident and enthusiastic writers.

Early Years and Key Stage 1

Talk, talk, talk!
The foundation of good writing is good talk. When you visit different places, encourage your child to talk about what they have seen, heard, smelt, tasted and touched. Ask them to describe their experiences and share their ideas in as much detail as possible.

Be a model writer.
Let your child see you writing notes, cards, letters, shopping lists, emails or messages. Show them that writing is something adults use every day. It is also helpful for children to see that writing is not always perfect first time and that making changes and editing are a natural part of the writing process.

Make writing meaningful.
Encourage your child to write for real purposes, such as:

• Christmas or birthday cards
• Thank-you letters
• Invitations
• Emails or messages to friends and relatives
• Shopping lists
• Holiday packing lists
• Football results or match reports
• Labels and signs

Play with words.
Games such as Boggle, Scrabble and Guess Who? can help to develop vocabulary, spelling and descriptive language.

Have fun creating silly sentences and tongue twisters using alliteration, where several words begin with the same sound. For example:

Silly Sarah slipped on Sam's salmon sandwiches.

Monty Mouse marched merrily to the magic mountain.

Create an inviting writing space.
Different types and colours of paper, interesting pens and pencils, envelopes, stamps and other stationery can help to motivate children to write. You could even create a special writing area at home.

Make writing playful.
Cut words out of newspapers or magazines and challenge your child to use them to create a sentence or story.

Encourage your child to say their sentence aloud before writing it down. This can help them organise their ideas and remember what they want to write.

Support them to remember important early writing skills, such as beginning sentences with a capital letter and ending them with appropriate punctuation.

Make handwriting fun.
Children can practise forming letters in sand, water, paint, shaving foam or playdough, or by using whiteboards and chalkboards. Pattern-making activities can also help to develop the control needed for writing.

Use everyday opportunities.
Ask your child to write part of the shopping list and take responsibility for finding those items in the supermarket.

Use magnetic letters to create messages, practise spelling words or organise letters into alphabetical order.

Talk about their writing.
Show an interest in what your child has written by:

• saying what you liked about it
• asking where their ideas came from
• asking them to show you where a sentence begins and ends
• encouraging them to talk through their ideas

You can also help your child organise their ideas by asking them to tell you what will happen first, next and last, or by drawing a sequence of simple pictures before they begin writing.

Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2

As children become more confident writers, encourage them to use writing for a range of purposes.

Write to someone.
Your child could write a letter to their favourite author, a friend or a relative.

Keep a diary.
When you go on holiday or enjoy a special day out, encourage your child to write postcards or keep a diary to record what they have done and experienced.

Write instructions.
After baking a cake or completing a craft activity, challenge your child to write a recipe or a set of instructions that somebody else could follow.

Write about their interests.
Encourage your child to create an information page, poster or booklet about something they are passionate about, such as animals, dinosaurs, football, space, history or a favourite hobby. They could include labelled diagrams, captions and interesting facts.

Support spelling and handwriting.
Encourage your child to practise their weekly spellings and phonics-based spellings. Challenge them to use the words accurately in sentences and continue to practise common exception words and neat handwriting.

A comfortable place to work, along with access to a dictionary, thesaurus and interesting writing materials, can also support their independence.

Talk about their targets.
Ask your child about their current writing targets and encourage them to work on these when appropriate.

Plan before writing.
Talk through ideas before your child begins. Ask questions such as:

• Who is the audience?
• What is the purpose of this piece of writing?
• What do you want the reader to think, feel or learn?
• How are you going to organise your ideas?

Encourage reflection and editing.
After writing, encourage your child to read their work aloud and think about whether it has the intended effect on the reader.

They could consider:

• Is the writing clear?
• Does it make sense?
• Have I chosen effective vocabulary?
• Are my sentences clear and interesting?
• Have I checked my spelling and punctuation?
• Is there anything I could improve?

Supporting Writing at All Ages

Whatever your child's age, there are many simple ways to develop a love of writing.

Show that writing is valued.
Share letters, cards and messages from friends and family and treat their arrival as something special. Help children to see that writing allows us to communicate with others.

Read together.
Read books to and with your child, including books that may be slightly more challenging than those they can read independently. This helps to expose them to ambitious vocabulary, different writing styles and a range of sentence structures.

Create stories together.
Read the beginning of a story and invent an ending together. You could do this verbally before writing it down, or simply enjoy creating and sharing ideas.

Most Importantly… Praise Their Efforts!

Writing is a complex skill and it can take time to develop confidence.

Celebrate the things your child has done well, whether that is:

• spelling a difficult word correctly
• using an interesting describing word
• remembering punctuation
• improving their handwriting
• developing an imaginative idea
• making a thoughtful change during editing

It is difficult to get everything right when you are learning. By praising effort, celebrating progress and making writing enjoyable, you can help your child develop the confidence to let their light shine through their writing.

Good luck, and enjoy writing together!

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