Writing at Hollywell

Our writing ethos is linked to our curriculum driver ‘inspiration’. We aim for children to be inspired to write texts that equally inspire their readers to read on.

At Hollywell Primary School, we believe that children should have the opportunity to become independent, confident and capable writers. Children are inspired to write creatively and meaningfully within an enriched curriculum which fosters a love of language and literature.

We aim to:

• Carefully choose quality texts which are then woven throughout the curriculum and serve to underpin the teaching of both reading and writing as a whole.
• Foster a love of reading and the writing process by listening to and interacting with a variety of literature, non-fiction and poetry, considering the choices a writer makes to appeal to the readers’ interest.
• Expose children to a realm of vocabulary enabling children to explore meaning as well as the beauty and power of language.
• Provide sequential knowledge and skills in spelling, punctuation, grammar and the writing process which build over time and refer back to this, delivering connected learning.
• Promote a life-long love of writing which develops their cultural, emotional and intellectual awareness so they can participate fully in the world around them.

Children have access to high quality texts alongside opportunities that inspire writing. They learn to write a wide range of different text types, develop their vocabulary and spelling knowledge and understand how to use grammar and punctuation correctly.

At Hollywell Primary School, we encourage our children to aim high and think creatively when writing. We encourage them to be adventurous in their language choices and to write with clear purpose and for pleasure. Children are taught to be increasingly aware of how writing can be used to share new interpretations of their ideas; that the reader requires to be inspired by their writing and think about what their reader’s existing knowledge may be.

Alan Peat's Inspiring Sentence Structures

Throughout the school, we are using a system for teaching writing developed by the educational specialist Alan Peat. We teach children how to use particular types of sentences, which have a handy name, so that children understand what is meant whichever class they are in in the school. The sentence types are designed to help children to write exciting, sophisticated pieces of writing that use the right tone for their purpose. Some sentence types are more appropriate to non-fiction, and others, to fiction writing.

Click on the links below to see the whole range of Alan Peat Sentence Types  and the year groups they are taught in.

Handwriting

Handwriting is a taught skill and we, at Hollywell, put a high value on teaching and sustaining good handwriting. We believe that children's self-esteem and pride in their work can be raised by good quality presentation. We follow the Charles Cripp's style of handwriting throughout the school to ensure continuity and progression across the year groups.