World Aware – Our writing curriculum works alongside our reading programme to help our pupils develop an understanding of the world they live in. We use quality texts from a range of authors, cultures and countries to teach, stimulate and inspire writing. Our non-fiction progression enables teachers to explore and discuss current issues while developing skills in different genre.  

Belonging – Our classrooms are supportive environments where all children are valued and all children are supported to achieve their best. We write for different audiences, real and imagined, and in so doing, develop an understanding of how to use language for effect and purpose in our writing.

Well-being - We nurture and build the self-esteem of our pupils by ensuring that they become confident and enthusiastic writers. We are determined that every pupil will learn to write fluently with neat, cursive handwriting, regardless of their background, needs or abilities. We seek to ensure that all pupils will make sufficient progress to meet or exceed age-related expectations and use continuous assessment to identify any pupil who is falling behind.

Spirituality – Our writing curriculum seeks to support our pupils’ spiritual, moral and emotional growth alongside their development of writing skills. We select texts that will stimulate discussion and support our pupils to explore big questions in the world along with aspects of awe and wonder.

Possibilities – We set high expectations for all our pupils in writing, ensuring that as confident writers, our pupils can apply their skills and achieve across the curriculum. Our curriculum encourages the discussion of future possibilities in the wider world. This is reinforced by our teaching of different writing genres; by studying and developing the ability to write for different purposes, our pupils become familiar with writing conventions that will equip them for their futures.

In writing, we use a complete book-based approach. It is based around a 'Teach Through a Text' pedagogy,  whilst embedding all of the National Curriculum requirements and it places audience and purpose at the core. The primary focus the pedagogy is to motivate children to write for a range of audiences and purposes using high-quality, diverse children’s literature by significant authors. We do this by immersing children in a range of literary worlds and themes, heightening engagement and creating curiosity through process drama, discussion and debate. This allows them to see themselves represented, and also explore the lives and experiences of others.

The carefully-planned sequences of lessons provide opportunities to explore writing conventions, which are embedded, and apply them into authentic writing for a range of real-life audiences. The writing outcomes are chosen for their pertinence and relevance to the particular point in the text (not chosen for their ‘genre’), marrying the writing opportunity with the relevant conventions so that children see the purpose in the skills learnt. Skills and outcomes are revisited to practice and consolidate learning.

Frequent opportunities to practise writing with a range of audiences and purposes in mind are embedded within our pedagogy. The limits of working memory are carefully attended to within these opportunities through a focus on practising using specific conventions and vocabulary that build on prior knowledge and that are informed by purpose and audience. Planned repetition and regular practice of knowledge and skills can increase the likelihood that pupils are able to retain these. Our curriculum is designed so that children repeatedly meet objectives over the course of an academic year and beyond. Each time they revisit these objectives, they develop increasingly complex mental models by integrating new knowledge and prior knowledge and by applying this knowledge for a range of purposes and audiences in their writing.