The document outlines writing skills and expectations for students in Year 1. It is divided into three sections - Musts, Shoulds, and Coulds - with increasing levels of difficulty. The Musts section includes basic handwriting skills and being able to write simple sentences with spaces, capital letters, and full stops. The Shoulds section builds on these skills, adding spelling tricky words, using punctuation within sentences, and writing multiple sentences. The Coulds section focuses on more advanced handwriting, planning writing, using a variety of sentence structures and punctuation, and writing longer texts of about 100 words with editing.

1. Y1 Writing Musts
I can write the sounds I can hear in a word
I can write simple words with one beat
I can write some tricky words
I can use my phonics to write new words
I can hold paper in position and use my writing hand to hold a pencil using
a correct pencil grip.
I can draw an anticlockwise circle
I can write on lines and control letter size.
handwriting
I can write my name correctly
I can write most letters correctly
generating
I can think, say and write a sentence.
implementing
I can count the words when I say my sentence.
I can count the words when I read my sentence.
I can leave a space between each word.
I can start with a capital letter and finish with a full stop.
reflecting
I can read my sentence and my teacher can read my sentence.
Y1 Writing Shoulds
spelling
I can write the zapper tricky words correctly in my own writing.
I can use my phonics to help me spell new words.
handwriting
I can starting and finish letters in the right place
I can smile in and out of lower-case letters
I can write letters b, d, p the correct way around.
I can separate words with spaces
generating
I can think and say each sentence before I write it.
implementing
I can use a capital letter for names of people, places, the days of
the week, and the personal pronoun ‘I’.
I can join sentences using and because
I can use a question mark and an exclamation mark at the end of a
sentence
I can use adjectives to make my writing interesting.
I can write four sentences which I can read and my teacher can read.
reflecting
I can read what I have written to check that it makes sense.
I can discuss my writing with my teacher and other learners.
Y1 Writing Coulds
spelling
I can write the Dinosaur Trail words correctly in my own writing.
I can use my phonics to help me spell new words.
handwriting
I can join lower case letters and leave capital letters unjoined.
I can write on the lines.
I can write descenders under the line all the same length (f, g, j, p, q, y)
I can write ascenders taller than other lower case letters and make them all
the same height (b, d, h, k, l, t)
generating
I can plan what I am going to write about by writing down ideas,
key words and vocabulary.
I can generate and say sentences before I write them (including speech)
implementing.
I can open sentences using words that show the order things happen
first, then, next, soon after that, last…
I can choose the most effective adjectives to describe nouns.
I can choose powerful verbs to interest the reader
I can write longer sentences using conjunctions to join ideas
and, or, but, when, where, if, what, and, because
I can choose the correct tense when I write (present tense and past tense)
I can use capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks to
identify sentences.
I can use commas to separate items in a list.
I can use apostrophes to shorten words I am = I’m.
I can write a story of about 100 words.
reflecting
I can re-read my writing to check that it makes sense.
I can proof-read my writing to self-correct mistakes in spelling and
punctuation