"Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this." Revelations 1:19

We are the Writing Ambassadors for 2023-2024.

"I love writing stories as it allows me to be creative." (Year 4 Pupil)

"I like writing as I always end up using new vocabulary and I love learning new words." (Year 2)

"Writing for me is like I have been given freedom on a page to be inventive." (Year 5 pupil)

"I like writing stories because I have really good ideas." (Year 1 Pupil)

At St. Antony’s we put great emphasis on writing as a skill for life. Enabling our children to develop into confident writers, who can adapt their writing to fit any genre or need, is at the forefront of our teaching.

At St. Antony's, we believe that immersing children in a range of high quality texts leads to effective writing outcomes. Therefore, we are implementing Ready Steady Write into our writing curriculum from September 2024.

Spelling at St Antony's    

Children have daily spelling lessons focusing on particular spelling strategies, patterns or rules. We use the Read Write Inc Year 3 to Year 6 spelling programme. Their weekly homework includes a group of words to learn, which fit the patterns that they have learned.

Parents can help at home by:  

• Encouraging them to look closely at words and  talking to them about words
• Encouraging them to try new words
•  Playing word games with them, such as Hangman, Boggle, Scrabble and/or Countdown
•  Encouraging effective memorising strategies
• Breaking words into syllables
• Using LOOK-THINK-COVER-WRITE-CHECK
•  Finger-writing
•  Encouraging good reading/writing posture
•  Sitting up - eyes 12 to 18 inches away from the work
•  Encouraging spare time reading
•  Pointing out interesting newspaper items
•  Encouraging visits to the library
• Buying comics, magazines and books as treats
•  Respecting "good mistakes" :  those which use letter patterns which do make the right sound, even though they are not right for that particular word. So, for "purpose": "prupose" would be a less good guess
•  Making sure a dictionary is on hand for homework.

Handwriting at St Antony's

We promote and encourage the use of a cursive script for handwriting, from Year 2 with regular handwriting sessions. 

The cursive style that we use, requires children to begin each letter on the line. This is because it helps children to know where letter formation begins for each  letter. The lead-in join also enables a smooth transition to completely ‘joined-up’ script as they progress in their handwriting.

The lower-case letters of the alphabet are taught in families, where the letter formation has only slight variations. All lower-case letters are uniform in size with only the ascenders (tall backs i.e. b, d, h, l, t) and descenders (long tails i.e. p, y, g, q) falling above or below the height of other letters. Upper case letters are never joined. Here is an example of our handwriting.

We are extremely proud of the progress our children are making in their understanding and creativity with regards to their written work. As always, we constantly strive to improve our teaching methods so that the children receive the very best and can enjoy learning whilst achieving success. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to drop in and speak to your child’s teacher at any time. Thank you for your ongoing support.