At Queensferry Primary School we always strive to achieve the highest possible standards in all areas of the curriculum, including writing.

To this end, we are providing examples of graded writing to help you support your children in homework writing tasks. Divided into the types of writing the children get taught and tested on, you can use the examples as a way to help your child achieve their potential. These examples have been taken from Edinburgh's "A Case for Writing" pack.

Just as a reminder, Level A should be achieved by pupils by the end of Primary 3 (though many schools have children achieving this by the end of P2), Level B by P4, Level C by P6, Level D by P7 and Level E by end of Secondary 2.

What is the purpose of this writing? This is fairly straight forward if it is a functional piece - it might be to complain, to share information or give instructions. It is important that children know why they are writing something.

Who is going to read this? The answer to this shouldn't be "the teacher"! Encourage children to think about the audience they are writing for - this will affect the tone and vocabulary chosen.

Have you made a plan? Jotting down ideas and phrases they want to use will help children to write in an organised way, and good planning is a skill that needs to be practised.

Does spelling and handwriting matter? Yes - in a final draft. If it is the first draft of a piece of work try to concentrate more on the ideas and the organisation. Focusing too much on handwriting can prevent a "flow" of writing, and focusing on spelling can discourage children from taking risks with difficult (but possibly better) words. Having said that, good presentation is always valued and a dictionary or thesaurus should always be on hand when writing.