Working at the expected standard: Write simple, coherent narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real or fictional)
To achieve this standard, we’d expect to see a selection of writing which showcases a child’s ability to write stories and personal narratives (memoirs).
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
- Make sure you have taught a variety of class writing projects [LINK].
- Read as writers and undertake genre study to understand what craft moves may be required for the project [LINK].
- From your genre study, establish a list of product goals for the project. This is a list of things you and the class think you will need to do or include to write successfully [LINK].
Working at the expected standard: Write about real events, recording these simply and clearly
To achieve this standard, we’d expect to see a selection of writing which showcases a child’s ability to write personal narratives (memoirs) and information texts.
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
- Make sure you have taught a variety of class writing projects [LINK].
- Read as writers and undertake genre study to understand what craft moves may be required for the project [LINK].
- From your genre study, establish a list of product goals for the project. This is a list of things you and the class think you will need to do or include to write successfully [LINK].
Working at the expected standard: Demarcate most sentences in their writing with capital letters and full stops, and use question marks correctly
To achieve this standard, we’d expect to see children using certain punctuation craft moves and see evidence that they have attended to their punctuation through proof-reading.
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
- Teach grammar craft moves [LINK].
- Teach sentence-level craft moves [LINK].
- Explicitly teach proof-reading [LINK].
Working at the expected standard: Use present and past tense mostly correctly and consistently
To achieve this standard, ensure there is evidence showing how children have attended to their verb tense use to ensure that it remains consistent. For children with English as an additional language, this is often a particular area of focus [LINK].
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
- Read as writers and undertake genre study to understand what grammar craft moves may be required for the project [LINK].
- Plan Use Of Vocabulary sessions at the proof-reading stage [LINK].
Working at the expected standard: Use some co-ordination and subordination to join clauses
To achieve this standard, we’d expect to see children using certain grammar and sentence-level craft moves in their writing.
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
Working at the expected standard: Segment spoken words into phonemes and represent these by graphemes, spelling many of these words correctly and making phonically-plausible attempts at others
To achieve this standard, we’d expect to see children writing ‘sound spellings’. We’d also see evidence of children attending to their spellings by proof-reading.
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
- Teach children encoding strategies and how to write ‘sound spellings’ [LINK].
- Deliver explicit spelling instruction [LINK].
- Plan Spelling sessions at the proof-reading stage [LINK].
- For children who need it, provide additional encoding instruction and practice [LINK].
Working at the expected standard: Spell many common exception words
To achieve this standard, we’d expect to see evidence of children attending to their spellings by proof-reading.
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
- Deliver explicit spelling instruction [LINK].
- Plan Spelling sessions at the proof-reading stage [LINK].
Working at the expected standard: Form capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower-case letters
To achieve this standard, we’d expect a child’s writing portfolio to showcase some examples of correctly formed letters and the use of capital letters.
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
- Deliver explicit handwriting instruction [LINK].
- Provide additional instruction and practice for children who need it [LINK].
- Integrate your handwriting instruction and pupil-conferencing into publishing sessions.
- For book-making projects, ask children to write up their favourite page in their best handwriting [LINK].
Working at the expected standard: Use spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters.
To achieve this standard, we’d expect a child’s writing portfolio to showcase some examples of ‘finger spaces’.
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
- Teach children to use finger spaces [LINK].
Working at greater depth: Write effectively and coherently for different purposes, drawing on their reading to inform the vocabulary and grammar of their writing
To achieve this standard, we’d expect to see a selection of writing which showcases a child’s ability to write for different purposes. To help with this, we provide children and teachers with the six most common reasons we are moved to write. These are the typical purposes for writing. They include:
(Figures from Young & Ferguson 2020 p.5-7)
Of course, these aren’t static. They can be used in conjunction with one another. Indeed, by combining different writing purposes together, children and teachers can enhance their texts. For example, teaching people in a way that is entertaining can enhance our audience’s reading experience. Alternatively, writing a reflective memoir whilst painting with words can bring an artistry and literary quality to our memories. This is something to look out for when assessing a child’s portfolio.
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
- Make sure you have taught a variety of class writing projects [LINK].
- Read as writers and undertake genre study to understand what craft moves may be required for the project [LINK].
- From your genre study, establish a list of product goals for the project. This is a list of things you and the class think you will need to do or include to write successfully [LINK].
Working at greater depth: Make simple additions and revisions to their own writing
To achieve this standard, we’d expect to see evidence of children making changes to their writing and illustrations.
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
- Have revision checklist sessions where children can reflect on their use of the product goals and ‘try out’ any that they may have overlooked [LINK].
Working at greater depth: Make simple proof-reading corrections to their own writing
To achieve this standard, we’d expect to see evidence of children proof-reading their manuscripts for capitalisation, use of vocabulary, punctuation and spelling.
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
Working at greater depth: Use the punctuation taught at Key Stage One mostly correctly
To achieve this standard, ensure that, across a portfolio of writing, children have used the range of punctuation taught at Key Stage One. This includes: capitalisation, end marks (full stops, questions marks and exclamation marks), commas for a list, apostrophes for singular possession and apostrophes for contractions.
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
- Teach grammar craft moves [LINK].
- Teach sentence-level craft moves [LINK].
- Explicitly teach proof-reading [LINK].
Working at greater depth: Spell many common exception words
To achieve this standard, we’d expect to see evidence of children attending to their spellings by proof-reading.
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
- Deliver explicit spelling instruction [LINK].
- Plan Spelling sessions at the proof-reading stage [LINK].
Working at greater depth: Add suffixes to spell most words correctly in their writing
To achieve this standard, we’d expect to see evidence of children attending to their spellings by proof-reading.
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
- Deliver explicit spelling instruction [LINK].
- Plan Spelling sessions at the proof-reading stage [LINK].
Working at greater depth: Use the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed to join some letters
To achieve this standard, we’d expect a child’s writing portfolio to showcase some examples of diagonal and horizontal strokes and some joined handwriting.
To help achieve this statement, consider the following teaching practices:
- Deliver explicit handwriting instruction [LINK].
- Provide additional instruction and practice for children who need it [LINK].
- Integrate your handwriting instruction and pupil-conferencing into publishing sessions.
- For book-making projects, ask children to write up their favourite page in their best handwriting [LINK].