Big Writing At Pencoed primary

What is Big Writing? Big Writing is a concept created by Ros Wilson, which aims to improve children’s writing skills by focussing on the four main aspects of writing: Vocabulary Connectives Openers Punctuation

VCOP sessions Pupils from Year 1 – Year 6 take part in daily VCOP sessions, to help develop and enhance their understanding of the four aspects. This aspect encourages pupils to use more ambitious words in their writing. With the help of characters such as ‘Wow Woman’, the pupils share their impressive words, which are displayed for use in their writing work.

This aspect encourages pupils to think about the words which join their sentences; then, and etc. ‘Captain Connectives’ helps pupils to use more adventurous connectives, which are displayed in each class. Older pupils are expected to use more complex connectives to help organise their writing. C

This aspect encourages pupils to think about the words which start their sentences. ‘Officer Openers’ helps pupils to use more adventurous words to begin each sentence, again examples are displayed in each class. Older pupils are expected to use more complex openers to enhance their writing.

This aspect encourages pupils to think about using punctuation in their writing. ‘Punctuation Pete’ helps pupils to use more complex punctuation; starting with capital letters and full stops, building year on year to include commas, brackets, speech marks etc. The pyramid helps pupils to see what punctuation marks are considered more complex.

The four aspects of writing covered in the daily VCOP sessions lead up to the ‘Big Write’ session, which currently takes place once a fortnight. The ‘Big Write’ session allows pupils to demonstrate what they have learned over the fortnight. This is usually done using a certain genre; a recount, newspaper article, a diary entry etc. The ‘Big Write’ atmosphere must be created to help further enhance the writing: Calm music playing Candles burning Desks arranged in a rectangle

In Nursery and Reception, our pupils are involved with ‘Big Talk’, which encourages the pupils to develop their speaking and listening skills. Through fun activities the pupils begin to use more adventurous vocabulary which will help with the development of their writing skills later on. Look out for ‘Talk’ homework.

Encourage your children to READ; look at books/magazines together and ask them to pick out the different VCOP aspects. Encourage your children to spot ‘WOW’ words and write them down to bring in to school. Encourage your child to TALK, have debates about fun things; If you were a Superhero, which one would you be? Encourage your child to explain their reasoning. Look on the website for Talk homework ideas. Encourage your children to WRITE, remind them to check the four aspects, are they using complex enough words/punctuation for their Year group?