In the EYFS, children develop writing skills through a combination of play-based learning, phonics instruction, and fine motor development. Writing begins with early mark-making, where children explore making marks with various tools. As their fine motor skills strengthen through activities like threading, drawing, and manipulating small objects, they gain better pencil control.

Phonics plays a crucial role - children learn the sounds that letters make (phoneme-grapheme correspondence) and begin to blend and segment words. They start forming letters and writing simple words, labels, and short sentences, often drawing from familiar experiences, stories, or spoken language.

Children are encouraged to write for different purposes in meaningful contexts, such as shopping lists in role play or messages to friends. Practitioners support writing development by modelling writing, providing stimulating resources, and fostering a language-rich environment.

By the end of EYFS, children are working to achieve their Early Learning Goal:

To write recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed. Spell words by identifying sounds in them and representing the sounds with a letter or letters. Write simple phrases and sentences that can be read by others. 

Key Skills covered:

Autumn

• To write their name.
• To give meanings to the marks they make.  
• To write initial sounds.
• To begin to write CVC words using taught sounds.

Spring

To use the correct letter formation of taught letters.

To form lowercase letters correctly.

To write words and labels using taught sounds.

To begin to write captions using taught sounds.

To begin to write sentences using fingers spaces.

To understand that sentences start with a capital letter and end with a full stop. To spell some taught tricky words correctly.

Summer

To form lowercase and capital letters correctly.

To begin to write longer words and compound words which are spelt phonetically.

To write sentences using a capital letter, finger spaces and full stop.

To spell some taught tricky words correctly.

To read their work back and check it makes sense.