Help your child with writing

Early Years and KS1

The basis of good writing is good talk. When you visit places encourage your child to talk about what has been seen, heard, smelt, tasted and touched. Encourage children to share their experiences in as much detail as possible.  

  • Let children see you being a model writer! Let them see you writing notes, cards or letters to friends or relatives, a shopping list, an article for a magazine or maybe a story or poem for them to enjoy. Let your children see that you are not perfect! Making changes and editing what you write is a natural part of writing.  
  • Let your child write their own Christmas cards, thank you letters, cards or e-mails to friends or relatives, invitations to a party, a list of things they need to take on holiday, or a record of football results.  
  • Play word-building games like Boggle or Scrabble. Games like ‘Guess Who’ can also develop their descriptive vocabulary.  
  • Create silly sentences or tongue twisters using alliteration (a group of words that all begin with the same sound). For example: Silly Sarah slipped on Sam’s salmon sandwiches or Monty Mouse marched merrily to the magic mountain.  
  • Different types and colours of paper, a variety of ‘special’ pens and pencils, envelopes, stampers and various other stationary items can all help to motivate your child to write. Maybe you could even create a special writing corner or area.  
  • Cut out words from a newspaper or magazine. Can they use the words to write a sentence?  
  • Encourage your child to rehearse their sentence out loud before they write it down.  
  • Always encourage children to punctuate their sentences with a full-stop and capital letter.  
  • Handwriting does not have to be boring! Let children practise writing letters in sand, water or paint, or use white boards or blackboards. Pattern books can be fun to do and allow children to practise mark-making. Children can also make letters using playdough, pastry or shaving foam.  
  • Let children write a small part of your shopping list. Let them be responsible for carrying their list and finding those items when you go to the supermarket.  
  • Use magnetic letters on the fridge to spell out a message. Encourage your child to write their name, spell words and organise the letters into alphabetical order. Engage with their writing through: – saying what you liked about it – asking where their ideas have come from – asking them to show you where a sentence begins and ends. 

KS1 and KS2  

  • Help your child write a letter to their favourite author. Correspondence can often be sent to an author’s publisher (whose details can be obtained on the internet) who will pass it on.  
  • When you go on holiday, encourage children to write postcards to friends or relatives. They could record things that you do in a holiday diary which they can share with friends or relatives when they get home.  
  • After making a cake or doing a craft activity, challenge children to write the recipe or instructions for someone else to use.  
  • Write an information page or booklet about something they find interesting e.g. spiders, Dr Who, dinosaurs, cats, etc. Draw a picture and label it or write a caption to go with it.  
  • Encourage your child to learn weekly spellings and graphemes and words containing those graphemes taught each week in phonics alongside those Harder to read and spell words! Write the spellings in sentences with accurate punctuation and practise high frequency words and handwriting.  
  • Provide your child with a comfortable place to work and exciting writing materials. A dictionary and thesaurus would also be useful.  
  • Ask your child what his/her next steps are from time to time and help them work specifically on these (green for growth weekly marking in English will inform the child’s next steps).  
  • Talk through their ideas with them before they start to write, for example, prompt them to think about how they intend to tackle a subject.  
  • Help them to reflect on their writing, particularly the effect they hoped to have on the reader. For example, is the reader sufficiently prepared for the ending? Have they introduced all the characters?  
  • Encourage them to read through their work, shaping their sentences for clarity and impact and checking their accuracy. 

 

All ages:  

Share letters and cards from friends and treat their arrival as special events. Show children that you value something that has been written especially for you.  

Read books to, and with, them that are at a higher level than their own reading to expose them to ambitious vocabulary and complex sentence structure.  

Read the beginning of a story and make up the ending together, verbally or in writing.  

Praise your child’s efforts at writing – it’s not an easy thing to do!  

Focus on a word they spelt correctly, neat handwriting, a good describing word (adjective) or good use of punctuation.  

Remember, it is difficult to get everything right when you are learning. 

Quick links to support writing: 

Is writing boring? - YouTube 

Cressida Cowell: Top Creative Writing Tips - YouTube 

How to develop storytelling skills | Oxford Owl - YouTube 

adjectives - Topmarks Search  

punctuation - Topmarks Search

News

Posted on: 26/08/2022

GCSE RESULTS 2022

BEST EVER GCSE RESULTS! WELL DONE TO THE STUDENTS AND STAFF. 

The staff at Heyford Park School are delighted with the excellent GCSE and BTEC examination results that Heyford students have achieved. These are a reflection of their fantastic commitment and the high-quality teaching they have received.  All our students should be justifiably proud of their efforts through the most challenging of times. We are really proud of the staff and students at Heyford Park School. It is wonderful that their hard work and commitment has been rewarded in this way. 

Headline KS4 figures are as follows: 

  • 29% of grades at Grade 7+ 
  • 62% of students achieved 5+ in English and Maths 
  • 79% of students achieved 4+ in English and Maths    The success at Heyford Park School includes many exceptional individual performances including Chi Ling who achieved five grade 9s, four grade 8s and a distinction, Clorice achieved four grade 9s, five grade 8’s and two grade 7s. Jacob who achieved four grade 9s, four grade 8s, a merit and grade 5. Ben, who achieved six grade 9s, two grade 7s and a distinction. Ellie Ryan who achieved four grade 9s, four grade 8s and a distinction. We are delighted that our students will now be able to move on to their next stage, whether at Sixth Form, apprenticeships or other pathways.  These fantastic results reflect our dedication to nurture students at all levels of ability and reward them for their positive attitudes, hard work and resilience.  Mrs Harris – A year 11 parent said;

    'Thanks so much to all the staff who have taken the time to support Jacob since year 7. The small school ethos has allowed him to thrive and I'm always bowled over by how well the staff know him as an individual. We know how hard you all work and you are very much appreciated'.

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Posted on: 20/07/2022

Heyford Park School celebrates best ever KS2 SATs results

Heyford park student celebrations

As you may be aware, pupils undertake a range of assessments throughout the course of the school year, some of which are statutory. The Department of Education paused these statutory assessments in 2019/20 and 2020/21 before they resumed again this year.

You may have seen some national headlines reporting a ‘disappointing’ fall in attainment compared with before Covid. We are delighted to share with you the overall fantastic news that the Heyford Park School end of Key Stage 2 assessment results (SATS) are our best ever.

This demonstrates the exciting journey that we have been on and is testament not only to the whole staff team, who have been dedicated to improving teaching and learning in the School, but also to the hard work and effort of the children they inspire. We are proud to share some of the headline figures as follows:

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Good Level of Development

73% achieved (71.8% National in 2019)

Year 1 Phonics

88% of children passed (82% National in 2019)

Year 2 Phonics

100% of children passed their retakes

KS1

Reading

81% achieved age related with 45% achieved above

Writing

76% achieved age related expectations with 7% above

Maths

88% achieved age related with 26% achieved above

71% of children achieved age related in reading writing and maths

KS2

Reading

77% achieved age related with 21% achieved above (74% National average)

Writing

77% achieved age related with 18% achieved above (69% National average)

Maths

74% achieved age related with 15% achieved above (71% National average)

64% of children achieved age related in reading, writing and maths (59% National average)

 

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