We use Jane Considine’s ‘Write Stuff’ approach to teach writing.

There are 3 key areas to think about:

1. FANTASTICS: 9 key areas that help children develop ideas, thoughts & vocabulary.
2. GRAMMARISTICS: 9 key ideas that help children understand the grammar behind sentence building.
3. BOOMTASTICS: 9 key techniques that help children develop their own personal writing style.

By focusing on each of these ideas (or lenses), teachers help children to deepen their understanding of how to build and structure effective pieces of writing.

What does that look like in the classroom?

A unit of writing will often start off with an ‘experience day’. These lessons make sure children have a good understanding of what they will be writing about, providing key information and vocabulary that might be needed later on. There will also be the chance to generate and collect all sorts of rich, descriptive language to be used later in the unit.

Next comes ‘sentence-stacking’ – after careful modelling by their teachers, children work together to choose the most effective vocabulary and sentence structures to create the response they want from their readers. They draw on different techniques and match their vocabulary carefully to their purpose for writing.

Then comes the ‘independent writing’. Children have the opportunity to create their own piece of work. They can draw on and use what they have learnt during sentence-stacking lessons, adapting it to make sure their writing achieves the desired end result.

Finally, it’s time to ‘edit writing’.  Children work together to support each other in making improvements, adding missing words and correcting simple mistakes. During these lessons, you will often hear the hum of conversation as children find, discuss and check any changes they make with their editing partners.