Writing
At HFNIS, we teach writing through the Talk for Writing approach which stresses the importance of talk prior to writing. In addition, it allows explicit modelling, scaffolding, rehearsal and drama techniques to be used in teaching and includes writing for a range of purposes. This process enables children to imitate the language they need for a particular topic orally, before reading and analysing it, and then writing their own, independent version.
Storytelling and purpose for writing is key to our writing programme. This begins in Nursery where children develop their storytelling skills using actions and repeated phrases.
We recognise the role that ‘talk’ plays in developing understanding of the written word, and the ‘Talk for Writing,’ model regularly gives children the opportunities to listen to and retell stories and non-fiction texts. Children are taught the skills needed to successfully write in the genre being taught and use these skills in their own work to think like a writer.
Handwriting is taught throughout the school following the Read Write Inc Letter Village lessons.
Grammar and spelling are integrated into our teaching of writing, usually at the start of lessons.
Oracy is the ability to communicate effectively, speaking clearly and grammatically correctly. We aim for our classrooms to be rich in talk, in which questions are planned, peer conversations are modelled and scaffolded and teachers use talk to develop thinking.
