How we teach writing at Old Town

Rationale

At Old Town Infant School & Nursery School we believe that children draw on their experiences in reading to help shape their writing and therefore high quality texts are at the heart of our writing.

We share rich examples of writing both on and off the page and teach children how to draw on their own experiences when writing. We give children meaningful opportunities to write for real purposes and audiences through a variety of forms including non-fiction, poetry and narratives.

At Old Town we believe strongly in the link between reading and writing and that developing children as writers is so much more than asking them to remember grammatical constructions or tricky spellings. It is a complicated and intricate process – and as we enable children to become confident writers, we give them a voice, support them to communicate and provide them with a skill that is vital for all of their schooling and in their life beyond.

Writing is planned so that children can follow the process through incorporating modelling, scaffolding, independence, and producing a final draft. Children have independent writing targets and are expected to work on these in their writing. The targets are monitored by both the teacher and learner on a regular basis and new targets are set when necessary according to individual need.