Writing in primary school can be separated into several areas that vary with importance due to the age of the child. These may include:

  • fine motor skills to enable writing of characters;
  • hearing sounds that make up words;
  • developing vocabulary;
  • speaking in whole sentences to understand grammatical construction; and
  • developing well-structured compositions - both fiction and non-fiction.

Parental support is invaluable to develop these areas, as you have a unique insight into your child's interests and can spend one-to-one time with your child.

Nursery

Encourage your child to tell you the sounds that they can hear in the environment.

Give your child opportunities to make marks for a purpose. For example, writing shopping lists, labels and invitations.

Speak with your child about their day at school (see Curriculum Overview). Can they tell you about the games that they played with their friends?

Give your child opportunities to share feelings and ask them to explain why they feel this way. This will encourage children to express themselves confidently.

Reception

Please support your child to learn the words and phonic sounds that are sent home each week in the book bag.

Provide your child with fiddly activities that require manipulation are good for developing fine motor skills, which help with controlling pencils and pens. Examples of these are: using playdough, colouring, fixing lego, cutting and sticking.

Discuss favourite activities with your child to develop their vocabulary and ability to speak in whole sentences.

Play with your child in a range of contexts to develop vocabulary and imagination, for example: creating scenes with small world characters; role play; and make believe.

Speak with your child about their day at school (see Curriculum Overview). Can they tell you about the games that they played with their friends?

Year 1

Provide meaningful writing opportunities; for example: invitations, cards, thank you letters, shopping lists, etc.

Some areas that you could focus on with your child:

  • correct formation of letters;
  • using a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence;
  • using a full stop at the end; and
  • using a finger space to separate words. vPractise the common exception words and encourage your child to use these in context. Click here for a copy.

Discuss your child’s day (see Curriculum Overview) and support them to develop their vocabulary through imaginative conversations.

Use espresso.co.uk for games, videos and activities for KS1.

Year 2

Provide meaningful writing opportunities; for example: invitations, cards, thank you letters, shopping lists, diaries and simple stories etc.

Some areas that you could focus on with your child:

  • correct letter formation;
  • using capital letters at the beginning of sentences and for proper nouns;
  • including full stops, question marks or exclamation marks, as appropriate, at the end of statements, questions and exclamations.
  • using adjectives to add detail; and
  • using past and present tense correctly.

Practise spelling the common exception words for Year 2.

Discuss your child’s day (see Curriculum Overview) and support them to develop their vocabulary through imaginative conversations.

Use espresso.co.uk for games, videos and activities for KS1.

Year 3

Encourage your child to write their own stories, non-chronological reports, newspaper articles or play scripts.

Some areas that you could focus on with your child:

  • encouraging them to read through their work to check it makes sense;
  • including one or more adjectives to add detail;
  • beginning to recognise the main clause and adding subordinate clauses - ‘After playing football, we went to get an ice-cream’.
  • using commas to separate clauses;
  • using inverted commas to mark direct speech; and
  • using paragraphs.

Discuss with your child what they are learning in class (see Curriculum Overview) to help develop their vocabulary and opinion about new topics.

Spelling

Practise spelling words from the Year 3 and 4 Spelling list. Investigate words with the prefixes dis-, mis-, in- and im-. Discuss the meanings of the words to help determine what the prefixes mean.

Year 4

Encourage your child to write their own stories, non-chronological reports, newspaper articles and persuasive arguments, demonstrating their point of view. Remind them to use the structure: P. (Point) E. (Explain) E. (Example) L. (Link) and to choose 3 main points, starting with an introduction and conculding at the end.

Some areas that you could focus on with your child:

  • ensuring the correct use of capital letters, full stops, commas, question marks and exclamation marks;
  • using fronted adverbials – ‘Later that day,…; On Wednesday,…;
  • using adverbs to modify an adjective, a verb or another adverb - the sun is extremely bright, I walked quickly, I arrived very early;
  • thinking about what the reader/listener needs to know;
  • having a clear beginning and ending; and
  • using the possessive apostrophe accurately.

Discuss with your child what they are learning in class (see Curriculum Overview) to help develop their vocabulary and opinion about new topics.

Spelling

Practise spelling words from the Year 3 and 4 Spelling list. Investigate words with prefixes inter-, anti-, and auto-. Discuss the meanings of these words to help determine what the prefixes mean.

Year 5

At home, you can encourage them to keep a diary or write their own stories.

Some areas that you could focus on with your child:

  • ensuring the correct use of capital letters, full stops, commas, question marks and exclamation marks;
  • using brackets, commas and dashes to show parenthesis;
  • using speech to give an idea about what a character may be like;
  • using words or phrases like ‘meanwhile’ to show that two events are happening at the same time; ‘contrary to’ to show an opposing opinion; ‘consequently’ to show a result; and
  • being able to proof read their own work for spelling and grammatical errors.

Discuss with your child what they are learning in class (see Curriculum Overview) to help develop their vocabulary and opinion about new topics.

Spelling

Please practise the Year 5 - 6 spelling words. Encourage your child to make mind maps about words including: definition, origin of the word, synonyms, antonyms and how to put the word into a sentence.

Year 6

Some areas that you could focus on with your child:

  • using a colon to introduce a list and a semi-colon within a list;
  • using varied, imaginative and appropriate vocabulary;
  • support with understanding the difference between the passive and active voice – the ball was kicked, I kicked the ball;
  • editing of work for grammatical accuracy and to improve vocabulary; and
  • developing an understanding of appropriate levels of formality in different compositions.

Discuss with your child what they are learning in class (see Curriculum Overview) to help develop their vocabulary and opinion about new topics.

Spelling

Please practise the Year 5 - 6 spelling words. Encourage your child to make mind maps about words including: definition, origin of the word, synonyms, antonyms and how to put the word into a sentence.