Are your Y6 children still learning extended writing?

[tigerzzzz]

My DD has had problems with writing all through school. She's a good reader, but ask her to put pen to paper and she goes to bits. She has word finding difficulties and really lacks confidence in writing both fiction and non-fiction. Back in Sept / Oct the teacher was sending extra work home, and working very closely with her to encourage writing. She was making progress.

Since the start of this year, that's completely stopped. She hasn't done any longer writing at school as far as I can make out. All the literacy lessons focus on a different aspect of grammar eg connectives, adverbs etc. They are working on worksheets where individual words need to be filled it.

DD is loving this, and likely to come out with a much better SATS result due to the changes to the tests this year. She's quite mathematical, and this aspect of literacy suits her much more.

I know from last year (mixed Y5/6 classes) that from May to the end of term they do a big drama production, sports projects and art. Not much academic work. I don't have a problem with this, but I am very worried that she's going to go to secondary in September not having had to produce more than a paragraph of writing at a time for over 9 months. Because she was so far behind her peers anyway I think she will lose this skill more than most. She has no confidence with writing and half the problem is in her head.

Is it true that they don't have to do an extended writing task for the SATs this year?

Is it likely that the other schools in the area will be teaching the same way? Is it normal to only teach to the SATs and therefore abandon any extended writing?

For the SATs, they will do the grammar, spelling and reading tests. The writing test is optional, BUT the teacher assessment level for writing is still reported. So, yes, extended writing should still be an important part of Year 6. The school should also be responding to the needs of their pupils, so if your daughter is weakest in her writing, they should continue to support her on this.

I would have a chat with the teacher about their plans- it is likely that this focus on grammar is a short term thing, and they will move back towards longer pieces of writing soon.

We are still teaching writing (grammar, spelling and punctuation are taught through reading and writing)

The school.could well have a monitoring visit from the LEA and will be expected to.show.evidence.from all pupils in.a variety of.genres.
So while the SPaG test is a major source of.panic to some.schools, it's definitely crucial that extended writing across the curriculum is embedded over the school.
Excuse poor typing.on phone!

Quite! Moderators can hardly turn up to look at a few exceedingly well punctuated sentences when they want to explore attainment in a wide range of writing types! We do extended writing every week and still manage to teach grammar, spelling and punctuation!

Hmmm. The school my children go to isn't known for being SATs-obsessed, but DS2 (Y6) has had an awful lot of spelling/punctuation/grammar homework lately.

I think that, to be fair, schools have always taught grammar, punctuation and spelling-you can't have good writing without htese elements being good too. What is different this year is the test. Children don't just need to know how to use the grammar and punctuation in their writing, they need to recognise the technical vocabulary used, be able to identify the meaning in the questions asked, etc. So schools this year need to ensure that this is covered explicitly. I think as we get used to the test format, schools will go back to just teaching good writing styles and the grammar, punctuation and spelling will be covered within this but with more emphasis on the vocabulary used and familiarity with the question style set increased. We are all just feeling our way in the dark a little this year!

My personal opinion is (and this not meant to worry you unduly) that the jump to secondary is massive anyway in terms of the amount of writing required - if the child is going to a reasonably 'academic' secondary - and so even if they'd been doing a normal year 6 without the current focus on SPaG it would still come as a bit of a shock.

Ds is now producing copious amounts of writing in yr 7 in History, Geography, Science and RS, let alone English, and it's taken a little while to come to terms with the speed, quantity and quality required.

Without putting her under too much pressure, it might be worth waiting until after Sats and then just doing a little bit of writing with her at home over the few months until secondary - make it fun and a mix of styles/types - just keep up some writing. Can you find out from other parents how much writing they do do in yr 7 at the school she'll be going to (I should imagine it does vary!)?

DD's school doesn't do SATs. Regardless, they are still doing lots of extended writing, alongside other forms of writing, and alongside learning grammar, spelling, etc. They've just done the 500 words competition for example.

OK thanks everyone. I think I'd better have a chat with the teacher. The school is very SATs obsessed, and I think they have panicked a bit about the new test. I don't object to them being taught all this grammar but it is important that she gets more confident at writing. Books - it's interesting what you said about how much more they need to produce.

Yes I think some writing at home is in order. I will just check with the teacher first though as they might do more extended writing over the next few weeks.

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