Primary Writing

Writing is one of the most important skills to develop at primary school level, as it will help your child through their learning journey across all subjects. This guide will take you through the writing standards expected in Key Stage 1 (Year 1 and Year 2) and Key Stage 2 (Year 3 to Year 6).

We’ve included expert advice from real-life primary teachers, free resources, and tips on how you can help your child develop their writing skills at the different stages of their learning. In this guide, we’ll take you through the key types of writing your child can expect at primary education level, and how you can ensure that your child understands different writing processes.

Get started by flipping through the Year tabs above, or learn more about writing at primary school level below!

What is primary writing?

Writing is one of the most effective forms of communication, and it’s a skill your child will need in their academic, professional and personal life. Primary school students will learn to develop literacy, motor and cognitive skills as they expand their knowledge of language features, which will enable them to progress seamlessly from Key Stage 1 and to the end of Key Stage 2 and beyond.

If your child is starting Year 1, they will need to have developed prewriting skills (such as fine motor skills) to work towards becoming a fluent writer as they progress through primary school. As they progress through to Key Stage 2, your child will start to refine the basic English language knowledge developed in Key Stage 1, resulting in a more well-rounded set of writing skills. These skills include spelling, grammar, and punctuation (also known as "SPaG"), as well as perfecting their understanding of different writing genres, processes and purposes.

Writing at primary education level also requires learners to understand various writing styles, including fiction (such as narrative writing), and non-fiction (such as report writing), and how these writing genres are used for different purposes.

By what age should a child be writing?

Typically, learners should be able to write letters, words and simple sentences by the end of Key Stage 1. In Key Stage 2, you can expect your child to be able to write short texts, using their English language knowledge to aid the writing process, including how to correctly use spelling and grammar principles to produce high-quality written pieces.

Keep in mind that teaching writing is a personalised experience, meaning that every learner will write at their own pace and however works best for them. While the writing practice tips in this guide have worked for thousands of children worldwide, you may need to adjust to best suit your young writer’s personal learning style. After all, every child is unique!

How do you teach primary writing?

There are many ways to successfully teach writing at primary school level, but it can be a challenging task to achieve on your own!

Our writing program for kids has helped thousands of primary school students develop key writing skills and has supported them through their learning journey. Night Zookeeper helps learners through the full writing process, from brainstorming new ideas, to organising them into coherent pieces of writing. We offer a wide range of writing games, writing lessons to learn key principles and acquire new vocabulary, creative writing prompts, and much more. Primary school students also have the opportunity to give cooperative writing a try with our safe community feature!

One of the most useful features of our program (for learners and parents) is our personalised feedback service, which is provided by real-life primary school teachers! All children’s writing receives constructive comments from our tutors, to encourage children to refine their skills and to get them accustomed to revising their own writing before re-submitting a piece.

Night Zookeeper is a fully adjustable education program, which means that you can adapt the content your child has access to based on school year, age, or current learning ability! You can also decide the type of content your child has access to, to ensure that they get exactly what they need out of the program. For example, you can search for specific assignments that target writing if you’d like your child to focus on that! For more information on the program features, please visit our user guide.

These features also help to make our program very inclusive and accessible for as many learners as possible. Night Zookeeper has been proven to work well for SEN schooling, including many success stories from children with dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, amongst many other special educational needs (SEN).

Related Content

• Primary English Curriculum
• Primary Reading
• Primary Spelling
• Primary Grammar
• Primary Punctuation