Writing (including handwriting and grammar)

At St John's, we love writing!

All of our writing is linked to our learning themes each half term, and we cover lots of different genres, including poetry, reports, narrative etc. Using high-quality, engaging texts as the basis for our English learning ensures that children are exposed to ambitious vocabulary, which they can then go on to use in their own writing. Sometimes we will look at a text as a whole school and produce written work based on the same theme. Following a request from the children in a writing survey, each term the children are given opportunities for free writing.  

We celebrate writing during the Pride Assemblies, through our Writing Walls in our classrooms and also the boards in the corridors and hall. 

Handwriting

Children practise handwriting every week in their classes. We follow the 'Letterjoin' scheme for handwriting. The children take lots of pride in their writing and handwriting plays a huge part in this. When publishing their English work, handwriting is a huge focus.

These are examples of how we start to form our letters developing into cursive when the children are able to do so. The expectation is for all children to be cursive by the time they reach the end of KS2. 

Grammar

Grammar and punctuation are important pieces in the jigsaw of effective writing. We teach new skills to children during individual lessons and recap on previous knowledge in grammar starters in each English lesson. Children are tested on Spelling, punctuation and grammar at the end of KS1 and KS2.