Learning to write is one of the most important things that a child at primary school will learn as they use their writing in almost all other subjects of the curriculum. Good writing also gives children a voice to share their ideas and imaginations with the world!
It is important to remember that learning to write can be a very tricky business for a child. Good writing involves handwriting, spelling, grammar and punctuation, not to mention thinking about what we want to write and who we are writing for! Therefore, at Harrington Hill we know how vital it is that we provide our pupils with a variety of engaging, cross-curricular opportunities in which to develop their writing skills. Look at the documents attached to this webpage to see the skills we are teaching in each year group.
Honestly? Give them rich and varied life experiences and read to them from the earliest age. These are the two key things families can do to develop their child’s vocabulary and imagination. Practicing writing with them comes after that.
Last week, we were invited to take five of our students to the Hackney Primary Debating Challenge at Clapton Girls Academy! We took part in a workshop where we learned the skills needed for debating; we had to be loud, opinionated and give clear, developed reasons for our arguments. We had great fun meeting new people from other schools, learning from others and developing our speaking and listening skills. In the next session, our Harrington Hill team debated in a competition against another Hackney school on the topic, ‘Should parents be paid to stay at home and look after their children?’ It was a fantastic debate full of confidence and many points of information!
Unfortunately, our team didn’t make it to the final, but we didn’t mind as we knew the winning two teams were excellent speakers and we learned a great deal from listening to them. We didn’t go away totally empty handed though… congratulations to Naia-Eve in Year 5 Emerald, who won an Outstanding Speaker Award!