At Aston Clinton, we ensure that all children see themselves as a writer and have successful writing experiences. Our aims are for the children to be able to express themselves clearly and fluently in order that they can take advantage of opportunities in future education and employment.  Children will be able to control their use of language and write for a range of purposes.   

Writing is taught daily.  We have carefully created a well-sequenced writing journey from Reception through to Year 6. It brings clarity to the writing process and allows the children to master the written language.  Throughout the writing process, children learn how to focus the writer’s attention.  

We have structured units of work into a long-term plan that link to our reading scheme.  In addition, some units have been designed to draw upon children’s broader learning from across the curriculum.  Writing about what they have learned in other subjects ensures that the children have a strong knowledge pool to draw from. 

We aspire to build children's love of reading and writing through the exposure of high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry. 

Every writing unit will start with a hook followed by a series of supportive writing lessons that are used to develop pupils’ understanding of grammar, syntax and vocabulary.  The hook may be a high-quality text, a picture, a video or an object.  Alongside this, there will be a model text which is deconstructed and closely explored.    Often, but not always, we will story-map the example text to develop our understanding of cohesion and enhance our oracy by retelling the story-map. We will look at features within the genre including which writing techniques are best suited and why with a heavy focus on purpose and audience. 

Reception

In Reception, there is a heavy focus on oral rehearsal before leading onto composition. 

During their first year in reception, children begin to orally tell stories using the Tales Toolkit. In Autumn term, the teacher models telling a story and they will create one as a group. In Spring term, children will orally tell their story to their teacher, who records this. To help generate their ideas, the children use pictures that they have selected and write labels using their phonetical knowledge. In Summer term, the children will begin to write a simple sentence and continue to orally tell their story to the teacher.

Phonics 

At Aston Clinton School, we follow the DfE validated phonics programme,  Little Wandle. 

Griffin OT 

Griffin OT is an evidence-based programme designed to strengthen children’s whole body and fine motor skills.  ‘Move with Jesse’ focuses on gross motor skills and ‘Dough Dance’ focuses on fine motor skills. 

Tales Toolkits 

Tales Toolkits focuses on early language and social development through oral storytelling.  The children learn to recognise symbols which then help them to structure oral stories.  In Autumn term, the teacher models telling a story and the children will create one as a group. In Spring term, children will orally tell their story to their teacher, who records this. To help generate their ideas, the children use pictures that they have selected and write labels using their phonetical knowledge. In Summer term, the children will begin to write a simple sentence and continue to orally tell their story to the teacher. 

Rhyme Time 

As part of the Little Wandle programme, children take part in a daily ‘rhyme time’ session.  This focuses on initial sounds and oracy skills.  To consolidate children’s learning, rhyme sacks are sent home. 

Aston Clinton Writing Journey

The Aston Clinton writing process, has clear phases:   

• Deconstructing and understanding the model text 

• Researching the topic 

• Oracy opportunities 

• Gather vocabulary and create a bank 

• Planning 

• Drafting 

• Editing and revising 

• Publishing 

*Not every phase of the writing journey will apply to every unit.  Sometimes they will move back and forth between phases. 

After deconstructing and understanding the model text, the children’s understanding of the text is then further deepened, often through drama.  This could be understanding a character’s feelings or morals, or developing their understanding of sequencing.  This stage is incredibly important as it ensures the children are familiar with what they are going to write about and are confident in their subject knowledge. 

Once the children have a clear understanding of the model text, they begin to plan their own. During this stage of the writing process, children will generate ideas and rehearse them, collect vocabulary and practise relevant sentence structures. 

Before drafting, the teacher will scaffold and clearly model the writing and this will be combined with a running dialogue from the teacher explaining grammar and punctuation choices.  Children then have the opportunity to complete their first draft independently or in trios.  Once a draft is complete, verbal or written feedback is given to which the children must respond and edit/revise.  These steps will be repeated until a completed piece of writing is achieved. 

The final phase in the Aston Clinton writing journey is publishing.  From Year 2 upwards, all children have a publishing book.  It is here where the children will write up their final piece of writing and celebrate their writing.  

Impact

Children will be respected as an individual writer, provided with regular opportunities to make individual choices and encouraged to develop their own creativity. Regular practice 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. The range of writing experiences we provide will enable all children to alter their long-term memory and thus know more, remember more and be able to do more as writers.  

Pupil Voice

Dexter (Year 6), "I feel supported in my writing all the time and the learning chunks really help me organise my writing"

Handwriting

At Aston Clinton Primary School, we teach 'writing' right from the start in a consistent and clearly sequenced, school-wide approach.  We have high standards and ensure that handwriting is practised regularly and consistently.   

By the end of Year 6, we want our children to have developed an effective joined handwriting style as a way of effective written communication. They will be able to write fluently at speed so that they can communicate through their writing. 

In Early Years and Year 1, we align the teaching of handwriting to our phonics programme: Little Wandle.   

From year 2 upwards, we teach handwriting through the Morrells Handwriting books.  All teaching staff have been trained and understand the importance of teaching handwriting, practising handwriting and consolidating letter formation before moving on.  Handwriting is taught progressively.  Once print handwriting is mastered (accurate letter formation and an understanding of letter families), children then learn first, second, third, fourth and fifth joins.  Following this, they apply this knowledge to practising writing words and sentences.  

Teachers will monitor children’s progress with their handwriting.  In-class support and interventions will be put in place for those children who require additional support.  

As with any skill, handwriting develops more rapidly with regular practice. Visit https://morrellshandwriting.co.uk/  where you will find a selection of resources which you can download and use to develop your child's handwriting at home. Please speak with your child's class teacher if you have any questions about the resources, how to use them effectively or to discuss your child's handwriting. 

Spelling

Our goal at Aston Clinton School is for children to be able to spell automatically. 

Children begin to learn to spell at Aston Clinton School through our phonics programme, Little Wandle.  Spelling is taught progressively and is aligned to the objectives outlined in the National Curriculum.  It is taught regularly and consistently with lots of opportunity to practise. 

Reception:  Little Wandle 

Year 1:  Little Wandle 

Year 2 and 3: Little Wandle Spelling – Phase 5 review, Bridge to Spelling, Spelling Units.  *Year 3 have the addition of Year 3 and 4 statutory spelling words. 

Year 4, 5 and 6:  Essential Spelling (Herts for Learning Education) 

We understand that spelling can be challenging for many children and have a number of supportive interventions in place.  Examples of this may include dictation, Nessy, precision monitoring and in-class scaffolds such as the Little Wandle Grow/Complete the Code phoneme mats.  In addition, every child from year 2 upwards has an alphabetised personal spelling book where they can record previously misspelt, but now corrected, spellings for future reference.    

For more details about your child's learning, please use the following link to the year group learning pages.