Writing at Burton

“Children want to write. They want to write the first day they attend school. This is no accident. Before they went to school, they marked up walls, pavements, newspapers with crayons, chalk, pens or pencils…anything that makes a mark. The child’s marks say, ‘I am.”      

Donald Graves

The links between reading and writing are strong. However writing also helps develop cognitive growth, organizational abilities and the power to influence others through persuasion.  In short, writing powers the brain. When writing children are challenged to think creative thoughts and problem solve which in turn builds the confidence and discipline they need to be successful in other areas of life.

At Burton School we aim to inspire our children to become successful and confident writers:

By providing a range of purposes for their writing

We want them to understand the conventions of different genres and write purposefully to entertain, to inform, to persuade and to discuss. We understand the importance of cross curricular writing as opportunity to apply the writing skills the children are taught.

By immersing them in an environment that promotes speaking and listening across the curriculum

We use the ‘Talk for Writing’ approach where they children write through ‘talking the text’ prior to writing the text. The approach moves from dependence towards independence, with the teacher using shared and guided teaching to develop the children’s ability to write creatively and powerfully.

By giving them the confidence to discuss why their writing is successful

We work collaboratively so children learn how to independently make changes to develop their writing by thinking carefully about word choice, sentence structures and the impact on their audience.

“By the time I am nearing the end of a story, the first part will have been reread and altered and corrected at least one hundred and fifty times. Good writing is essentially rewriting. I am positive of this.”   

Roald Dahl

All teachers regularly moderate writing in phase teams to insure children are on track to achieve end of year expectations and identify gaps that can be targeted through tutoring. Handwriting is taught specifically to all children following a clear progression.

Enjoy reading some of the children's writing from across our school...