At the end of the academic year, Reception teachers look proudly through their children’s writing books and see well-formed sentences. The children have written phonetically plausible words; have formed most of their letters correctly, and their sentences make sense! But how did we get here?
Supporting children to develop successful sentence-writing skills is a central aim for all Reception teachers. There are many elements needed when writing a sentence – we ask so much of our 4- and 5‑year-olds.
To write a successful sentence, Reception-age children must be able to:
Verbally compose a sentence
Segment and sound out a word
Recall the sounds they need in order to write those words
Recall the letters to make those sounds
Form most of those letters correctly
Check that their sentence makes sense.
At Werneth Primary School, we have looked at how to effectively support the development of children’s sentence writing. We have focused on the development of communication and language, alongside embedding opportunities to develop children’s self-regulation and executive functioning skills. We recognise that children with strong self-regulation skills are more likely to effectively motivate themselves and take an active role in their own learning.
By implementing Recommendation 1 and Recommendation 4 of the EEF’s Preparing for Literacy guidance report, we planned how to build on our already strong literacy practices across our Early Years unit.
Embedding Opportunities to Develop Self-Regulation (Recommendation 4)
There is evidence that children with well-developed self-regulation skills are more likely to succeed.
Research – and day-to-day experience – tells us that “children with well-developed self-regulation skills are more likely to succeed.”
The guidance explains that activities to develop self-regulation typically include supporting children to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning.
Using a Plan – Do – Review model, we support children to:
Plan – Staff model their own thinking, verbalising vocabulary and ideas. They then guide the children to articulate their own sentence. We revisit earlier work, encouraging pupils to recall key elements and enhance their writing: “How can we make it even better than last time?”
Do – The children collect the resources they need, such as sound and vocabulary mats. Staff remind children to repeat their planned sentence.
Review – Children check their sentence by themselves and with a friend.
Although highly effective, this strategy required extensive modelling and repetition to embed across Reception. The approach has also been implemented in other areas of learning, including our Nursery class, and has resulted in more successful autonomous as well as collaborative learning. We have found that using shorter cycles of Plan – Do – Review, rather than longer ones, can help children maintain focus.
Prioritising the Development of Communication and Language (Recommendation 1)
It is widely recognised that “if we can say it, we can write it.” With this in mind, it is vital that we develop the complexity of our children’s vocabulary, whilst simultaneously supporting those who need to develop their everyday speech and language.
Planning which vocabulary to teach, when to introduce it, and matching it to each child’s needs is a delicate balancing act — but one that research shows pays off.
Using Tier 1, 2 and 3 vocabulary to plan language acquisition helps ensure that children who need to be challenged have access to more complex and topic-specific vocabulary, whilst still providing Tier 1 vocabulary to support everyday communication. This links back to our earlier focus on self-regulation: children need to be able to verbalise how they are feeling, and Tier 1 vocabulary provides the essential foundation to do so.
Direct and explicit teaching is essential for effective vocabulary development, but we could argue that it is through implicit approaches — such as high-quality adult-child interaction — where we see some of the strongest vocabulary acquisition.
At Werneth Primary School, we ensure that children have access to a rich language environment, where they can use word mats, books and props to practise using their newly acquired vocabulary both independently and with adult support when needed.
Implementing these strategies has resulted in more and more children leaving Reception as confident and capable writers!
