Thinking about Improving Primary Writing: Important Considerations

Alex Quigley in his book “Closing the writing gap” likens the act of writing as ‘tantamount to a game of chess’. That for most classrooms, pupils will be thinking about the many ‘moves’.

The conscious craft of writing, becomes more technical as pupil move through primary school. When a pupil in Year 3 is writing a diary entry, they will need to juggle an array of important knowledge – handwriting and spelling; knowledge of sentence structures; the purpose and audience as well as the coherence of the text.

Writing is a complex process that takes up a considerable amount of the working memory!

Good writers pause to think and plan, whereas less effective writers’ often become overwhelmed by the number of ‘chess moves’ that they need to orchestrate in order to achieve the writing outcome.

EEF’s planning guide for 2022-2023, recommends that in order for writing to improve, schools need to: “develop pupils’ handwriting, spelling and sentence construction through extensive practice.”

To enable all pupils to write well, pupils need to be fluent in transcription skills. Success in writing depends on strong and fluent foundations in spelling and handwriting.

Research has revealed that the act of composition needs to be supported by effortless handwriting and secure spelling.

If pupils have not mastered these skills early on, future success becomes problematic.