At Kilmorie, we believe by teaching our children to become effective speakers, listeners, readers and writers we empower them to better understand themselves, each other, and the world around them.  

Children explore ideas to enrich their writing through drama, art, music and educational visits. Children participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates. These areas of learning develop our children into confident speakers and listeners as well as confident writers. Early writers will call on their own experiences and, as children progress through the school they are developed further by exploring a range of text types such as extended stories, poetry, diary entries, reports, discussion and many more. 

Writing for a purpose and an audience are integral to our writing curriculum. We place great importance on teaching children to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting language and style that is fit for purpose. 

Our teaching of writing is often cross circular and linked to our class topics. When appropriate, we link our writing to current world events or the interests of the children to make the writing more purposeful and engaging. Writing units are planned around high-quality texts where children are shown how a writer uses different writing skills for different effects. They are taught and provided with opportunities to experiment with grammatical structures to create a particular impact upon their reader. They are taught to develop their use of vocabulary ensuring it is fit for purpose and audience. They learn to use consistent and accurate tenses and to organise their writing coherently. A unit of writing usually lasts three weeks ending with the children creating their own ‘masterpiece’ with an intended audience and purpose.  

We follow a mastery approach to writing, which builds on prior knowledge and skills. We focus on the following four writing purposes: to inform (including recounts, news reports, non-chronological reports, explanatory texts, instructions); to entertain (including narratives, poetry, diary entries or letters); to persuade (including adverts, letters, news articles, speeches, posters); to discuss (including be news articles, debates, speeches). 

• Year 1 and 2 - Writing to entertain and writing to inform 
• Year 3 and 4 - Writing to entertain, writing to inform and writing to persuade 
• Year 5 and 6 - Writing to entertain, writing to inform and writing to persuade and writing to discuss 

As part of the writing process children are taught to reflect on, edit and improve their writing and its presentation. 

Letter-join handwriting programme

To help teach handwriting, our school uses Letter-join handwriting programme. As part the subscription parents and carers can access Letter-join for free to help children practice at home.

This guide shows how to use Letter-join’s key resources for home learning