The Write Stuff

Intent

Here at St John’s CofE Primary School, our aim is for all children to grow into confident,imaginative and fluent writers who are able to use a range of writing techniques and tools to express their journey through primary school with us.

 

Implementation

At St John’s CofE Primary School, we follow ‘The Write Stuff’ scheme - established by Jane Considine - from Reception to Year 6. This scheme brings clarity to the mechanics of writing through immersion in extraordinary vocabulary and clear and concise systems in which the writer can engage their imagination. 

 

“One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment.” ~ Hart Crane

 

In our lessons, the teachers follow a repeated and ‘chunked’ structure,’ where they use the three zones of writing to provide a consistent, systematic whole school approach to writing. 

Each lesson is broken down into 3 learning chunks, with each chunk having three sections:

  • Initiate section - a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence.

  • Model section - the teacher models a sentence that outlines clear writing features and techniques.

  • Enable section - the children write their sentence, following the model but inputting their chosen vocabulary. 

Children are challenged to ‘Deepen the Moment’ which requires them to independently draw upon previously learnt skills and apply them to their writing during that chunk.

 

“The Write Stuff” uses three essential writing zones to enable to children to become phenomenal writers:

  • The FANTASTICS - 9 lenses to structure ideas and support the children in targeted thinking, providing them with opportunities to initiate ideas and ignite imaginations. 

  • The GRAMMARISTICS - Tools used to teach the rules of our language system so the children can carefully structure their sentences. 

  • The BOOMTASTICS - Techniques to help children capture the attention of their audience using a range of literary devices and techniques.

 

 Look at our writing!

Year One

 

Year Five

Year Six

 

 

Writing Progression Grid

Writing Progression Grid
Writing Progression Grid

Wonderous Writing Club

In Wonderous Writing Club they have been looking at writing 50 word fiction - the idea being that you can create a narrative or set the scene of a story using fifty words or less when you make impactful word choices. They used picture writing prompts and worked together to brainstorm adventurous vocabulary. Lots of the children then took their favourite picture prompt home to work on developing their narratives!

Author Workshops

Poetry Slam at Writhlington Theatre