This week I've had the privilege of receiving three different pieces of writing to my classroom door from children through Park Street wanting to share their independent writing. They have ranged from some of our littlest children in school to higher up in Key Stage 2. Not only this, but the whilst the work was independent it was all work that was also completed at home by the children. What a fantastic way to show a clear love of writing!
I've been lucky enough the read the most fantastic story about a boy and his best dog companion going off in search of a wonderful adventure down by the seafront. I've even spent a quiet minute reading a very funny comic book one of our children created about their own self-created superhero. Finally, I've read the most beautiful poem all about Spring by one of our older Key Stage 2 children. The work was truly lovely to see and I'm hoping more will be arriving at my door soon to share!
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With SATs starting next week we would like to take this opportunity to wish all our Year 6's the very best of luck. Team AF and LL have both been working so incredibly hard and have really given their all to preparing themselves as best as they can for the tests to come. Team Park Street are proud of you all and will continue to be when next week draws to an end. 
Just a gentle reminder that breakfast club for our Year 6's will be running as it does every year from Tuesday to Friday. 
Good luck Team AF and LL!

Since returning from our half term holiday, Team CB have been working hard on our unit focus of Limericks. All through school writing has had a poetry focus with each class taking a different form of poetry. Mrs Lawson has been giggling away quietly at some of the fantastic limericks written by Team CB. 
The class have been using their whole class text The Firework Maker's Daughter to influence their limerick. They have thought about the different character traits of Lila, as well as the structure of limerick poems to help them create their own. Be sure to pop and have a look on Team CB's handwriting heroes display to read some of the fantastically funny poems. I'm certain they will have you chuckling!

Firstly, I'd like to extend a warm welcome back following the half term holidays. We hope all our children are well rested and ready to enjoy our final term of the academic year. 
During the Summer Term, our children through school will write for many different purposes, but there are core themes running across school. Since our return, children have been engaging with different poetry forms up and down school. In Team JF the work has centred around riddles, Team CB have focussed on limericks,  Team JD have been busy writing personification poems and Team LF have been constructing blackout poetry. 
As we move further into the term, classes will also engage with writing their own narratives based on their text drivers and exploring letter writing. 
Be sure to check out individual class blogs for a more up to date account of what is happening in each class.

During our Spring term, school have been working hard to further emphasise the importance of handwriting up and down school. We have seen an increased distribution of pen licences through school which is fantastic. This signals that are children are working really hard to master the correct letter formation and joins needed to write legibly. 
We have also added an additional celebration to the end of our Golden Book which features a class each week fetching in samples of handwriting to be proud of. To ensure that our children are applying their handwriting skills at all times this could be from any area of the curriculum. Keep up the hard work Park Street, we are proud of your efforts!

Over the last half term, the children in nursery have been working really hard to develop their mark making skills. 
Fine motor skills are very important in building the strength and control needed for writing and we have had lots of opportunities to practise these in our funky fingers area. 
In the writing area, we have been learning to hold our pen or pencil in a tripod grip and add more pressure to the paper. We have been working on making different patterns including zig-zags, circles and lines going up, down and across. Some children are getting really confident with writing their name and we are encouraging them to write it on their creations to give lots of practise. Everyone is able to find their own name card and have a go at writing the first letter. 

Team CW are working hard developing their fine motor skills and handwriting. One of their favourite activities is Dough Disco! Every week during provision time they take part in fine motor skills activities to develop their handwriting during indoor and outdoor provision. The class have been writing in our Read Write Inc phonics sessions. They have been learning to write Set 1 sounds in words and some of the class have been writing special friends sounds in words from Read Write Inc. Rainbows have been working hard to read what they have written by pointing to each sound and blending them together, and have been able to “fix” and change words if they haven’t quite got them right the first time. Some of the children have also been learning to “hold a sentence” in their head before they write by saying it several times to help them remember it. After writing it, they children have checked their sentence to see if it makes sense. Reception like to write during provision activities too! They have written shopping lists for Grandma from Little Red Riding Hood, “wanted” posters for the Gingerbread Man and labelled drawings of houses and wolf traps for the Three Little Pigs. 

This half term, Team LL and AF have been working really hard to develop their skills in writing. They have spent time completing descriptive written work linked to their history theme about the Ancient Egyptians.  The class have used their residential trip to  Robinwood as a stimulus for writing and have been busy developing diary extracts from different perspectives thinking carefully about vocabulary choices and levels of formality. The teams have also been writing to persuade. Both classes loved welcoming parents to their writing workshops where they developed persuasive adverts to encourage tourists to visit the nature reserve. In addition, Year 6 have been developing their use of homophones – ensuring accurate spelling and appropriate use. There has also been a focus on punctuation where the class have been learning how to use colons, semi colons and hyphens accurately.