The Write Stuff is integral to our pupils’ development and understanding of vocabulary and how an author’s choice of vocabulary can leave a lasting impression on the reader.  

It promotes high quality dialogue between the teacher (as the expert writer) and the pupils (as novice writers) through encouraging them to make choices about vocabulary that are fit for purpose; learning new words and providing repeated opportunities to use these words in different contexts. ’Talking with the children…’ through CHOTTING and Kind Calling Out include planned and deliberate high end vocabulary choices with modelling aloud the writer’s choices, exposes our pupils to a wider vocabulary. Working Walls develop and support the writer’s journey as well as providing and additional resource through examples using a Shade-O-Meter to explore synonym choices reflecting positive and negative intent. 

The Write Stuff also supports recommendations from the EEF which state that purposeful activities for speaking and listening include: 

• collaborative learning activities where pupils can share their thought processes. 

• reading books aloud and discussing them. 

• pupils articulating their ideas verbally before writing

The Three Zones of Writing 

There are three zones of writing which form the Writing Rainbow. The FANTASTICs (Ideas), The GRAMMARISTICs (Tools), and The BOOMTASTICs (Techniques) support children’s learning, precision, and writing. 

Pupils learn how to construct sentences from each of the different areas to ensure they have written with purpose and engage effectively with the audience. 

The FANTASTICs system, which is also used in the teaching of reading, allows children to identify the nine elements that all text types are comprised of. When pupils are familiar with these nine elements, they are able to ensure that they are incorporated into their writing. The FANTASTICs help children to sharpen their understanding of their own and others’ writing by encouraging them to be observant and reflective. 

The 9 GRAMMARISTICs cover national curriculum requirements, capturing the broad spectrum of key grammar knowledge. Discrete grammar lessons are also taught to ensure specific grammar knowledge is taught and revisited. 

The BOOMTASTICs capture the ten powerful ways to add drama and poetic devices to writing. They help children structure their work, teaching them to showcase their writing voice, demonstrate originality and to take risks in a bid to capture the truth of a situation. 

Fiction and Non-fiction Units 

Each writing unit is based on a quality text and the structure of the unit ensures an immersive experience within the book ahead of a final independent write.  

Narrative units use Plot Points to reveal the story, exploring the highs and lows of the main character. Experience Days enable children to explore the material in a variety of ways creating memorable experiences for them to use as a basis for their writing. 

Non-narrative units focus on shapes to develop and sequence the overall structure of the text. 

Every non-fiction unit requires the teacher to establish the exact shape that needs building. The shape could come from a non-fiction text, film clip or book. We recommend that non-fiction shapes ideally have nine jigsaw style components. These jigsaw pieces need to be shared with pupils from the outset so that they have a clear sense of all the parts of the writing that constitute the non-fiction text type. 

Pupils begin writing in this style from the Spring Term in Reception, all the way up to Year 6. The Write Stuff is founded from educational research and enables our pupils to explore and engage with a variety of genres over the years. 

Writing is taught through a few different strategies. Every unit always starts with an Experience Day, which may involve drama, film clips, experiments, a visit or visitors, food tasting, etc. 

We use a method called “Sentence Stacking” which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing.  

An individual lesson is based on a sentence model, broken into three chunks: 

1. Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence 

2. Model section – the teacher close models a sentence that outlines clear writing features and techniques 

3. Enable section – the children write their sentence following the model and have the opportunity to ‘deepen the moment’ where they can explore the plot point further and demonstrate their own creative sentences using their previous learning. 

Key benefits of The Write Stuff: 

• Support for teachers so that they have a deeper and more flexible knowledge of sentence structure. 

• Pupils who understand how to apply sentence scaffolds to their independent writing as they develop their expertise. 

• Standards improve because many worked examples are provided over the year that extend understanding through a wide range of genres and non-fiction text types. 

• Children have a clear view of what high quality writing looks like, and their learning is structured clearly, and misconceptions dealt with. 

• Pupils know how to improve their writing and make it more focussed and actionable feedback is provided to guide their learning. 

• Children have a concept of how to build, plan and complete a piece of writing due to narrative maps and non-fiction shapes. 

• Teachers have clear pathways of how to guide pupils in weak areas such as cohesion and paragraphs. 

How does it improve outcomes for disadvantaged children? 

As an academy, we have decided that implementing one strategy well (linked to teaching as opposed to intervention) will be more effective in helping improve the outcomes of our disadvantaged and lower attaining pupils. The Write Stuff uses effective approaches for tackling disadvantage which is heavily supported by the EEF. Wider research shows us that disadvantaged children have lower self-esteem and feel less successful; they have a reduced vocabulary; less or different life experiences and we know relationships really matter to these pupils. We need to make it our job to help these children with these areas so that they become confident and independent writers. 

How will an effective implementation of The Write Stuff Approach support our most vulnerable learners? 

1. Experiences – every unit ensures that all children have experiences to build ideas on which to write. There are no assumptions, the experience days are varied and provide an opportunity to talk and build up a vocabulary bank which is meaningful. The experience has a direct link to the learning. 

2. The Writing Rainbow scaffolds learning providing clear ideas, tools, and techniques for writing. 

3. Vocabulary and words are integral to every lesson. This provides opportunities for children to be exposed to a growing number of words and begin to identify the effect and nuance they bring to the meaning of the writing. 

4. High expectations on all children. A strong, high-quality model will direct the children to craft high quality sentences themselves. 

5. Success drives motivation and working in sentences with clear goals sets an achievable target. Building writing over time in a directed way provides the support needed to deliver independent writing at a later date. 

6. The structure of the lessons into chunks prevents the working memory being overloaded and therefore offers a higher chance of success, building self-esteem and motivation. 

7. Relationships are developed through the approach; talking partners, kind calling out and sentence selection and appreciation all provide a positive respectful learning relationship to evolve between pupils and adults. 

8. All children including our most vulnerable have a voice within the approach. The expectation to CHOT alongside Kind Calling Out means everyone’s contribution can be valued. 

9. Feedback through sentence stacking wall, appreciation and editing stations promote independence and a sense of ownership. The feedback is more likely to be well received due to the positive relationships and the sense of success and ownership. 

10. The nine areas above support us as teachers to provide high quality teaching using direct instructions but setting high expectations of all. The plans and the training materials allow us to refine our practice and get the best from all our children.