Writing at St. Joseph's

Children at St. Joseph's begin their writing journey through the careful use of the Read Write Inc.  programme, which supports word and sentence level writing as well as some extended writing in later stages. RWInc. Comprehension continues this process in Year 1/2 and enables children to write more developed sentences and responses. Once the programme has been completed, our children move onto The Write Stuff in Year 2 and this is continued right through to Year 6.

Jane Considine's 'The Write Stuff' is a highly structured and supportive programme that allows children to develop wide, rich vocabularies and write detailed and interesting texts within a range of genres. The children use the Writing Rainbow and its symbols to identify all of the different tools and techniques of high-quality writing and - through processes known as 'chotting' and 'Kind Calling Out' - they learn to write accurate and vivid sentences. 

Write Stuff lessons are a mixture of 'Sentence Stacking' and 'Experiences' - a combination which allows the children to feel fully prepared for the independent writing that they will do at the end of each unit of work. Lessons are lively and dynamic and the children take tremendous pride in the writing that they produce.

"I’ve learnt how to do a non-chronological report and how to do poems about autumn. I’ve learnt how to use brackets and commas." (Year 3 Pupil)

"I like how we build up lots and lots of different parts of a text to make the whole thing – with the sentence stacking lessons. You can take words from the lists you’ve collected and then put them in a real paragraph." (Year 4 Pupil)

"Usually I can get started straight away but if I can’t, then I can get help from my partner. I would look back in my book if we were doing independent writing to see what we had done in the sentence stacking lessons. I’ve learnt how to make a pun and to use superlatives. I’ve learnt a lot more about how to write stories and biographies." (Year 5 Pupil)

Alongside The Write Stuff, children are taught discrete lessons each week in spelling and punctuation/grammar. This combined approach ensures that our children feel confident and creative when they approach writing.