At Stenson Fields, writing is taught by first learning to orally rehearse a sentence.  This is beneficial for the children because it gives them the opportunity to plan the words they want to write ensuring it sounds correct.

In class, the children will read and enjoy a book linked to our topic then do some writing linked to that book. We will write in various genres: fiction, poetry, non-fiction, lists, reports, recounts.

In year 1 children are encouraged to sound out each word, although the letters they choose initially might not be completely accurate! We encourage them to use an actual finger placed on the paper to make a finger space between words. We teach the difference between capital letters and lower case so that they can use a capital letter at the start of a sentence. They should repeat speaking and reading as they write each word to ensure no words are missed and the sentence sounds correct. At the end we use a full stop. We re-read to ensure the sentence makes sense.

We look at hand-writing to ensure 'tall letters are tall and small letters are small'. We look at letters that should come down below the line - y, p, q, j. Lower case letters should have a little flick at the end ready for joining up letters as children progress. Capital letters should be larger without flicks.