How to encourage and improve writing within Primary schools.

Improve writing within Primary schools:10 tips/resources for teaching staff to encourage and improve writing within Primary schools.

Its national writing day and we all know how much the pandemic has affected lost learning for children, but recent research suggests there is much more needs to be done to improve writing within primary schools as a result.

Historically, according to a government paper, writing is the subject with the worst performance compared with reading, maths, and science at Key Stages 1 and 2. Click here to read the government report on ‘What is the research evidence on writing.’

We have put together a list of teaching resources to assist teaching staff to improve writing within Primary school. Research indicates that 2 out of 5 children enjoy writing outside of school and those that write more and enjoy it, have better writing skills and better mental wellbeing.

1. For Cressida Cowell’s best 3 writing tips( of ‘How to train your dragon’), click here
2. How using a notebook can help with writing, by Cressida Cowell, click here
3. Tips on where to start when you are stuck. Click here
4. For ideas and tips to encourage journal writing that can be linked to other parts of the curriculum, click here
5. A list of templates on letter writing including the idea and approach to write to someone in a care home, click here.
6. To access a link to Young Writers who hold regular competitions across a variety of age ranges, click here
7. Encourage pupils to take part in the Young Wild Writer Competition; entries can be in any genre – poem, prose, article, or diary – and there are two primary age categories: 5-8 and 9-12: deadline for entries is on 10th July 2022. Click here for more information.
8. For tips to help children overcome the fear of creative writing click here
9. To access story board templates to help pupils get started, click here
10. To find out more about our tutoring programme ‘Tutoring with the Lightning Squad’ in conjunction with FFT click here