At Carleton St Hilda’s Primary School, we want every child to become a confident, fluent and independent writer who can communicate clearly, creatively and effectively for a range of purposes and audiences. Our writing curriculum reflects our commitment to high expectations, inclusion and modelling and scaffolding to ensure success for all learners.

We recognise that strong writing is fundamental to children’s success across the curriculum and beyond school. Our curriculum therefore builds secure foundations in spelling, handwriting, vocabulary, sentence construction, grammar and punctuation, enabling pupils to develop fluency and increasing independence, focusing on ensuring automaticity and recognising the complexity of writing. These skills are taught systematically and progressively from Reception onwards, so that transcription becomes increasingly automatic and children can focus their working memory on developing and communicating ideas.

We aim to develop a genuine love of writing. Children are immersed in high-quality texts that broaden their vocabulary, stimulate their imagination and expose them to a wide range of authors, genres and writing styles. Through these texts, pupils learn to identify and understand the choices writers make and apply this knowledge to their own work.

We recognise that talk is fundamental to writing. Pupils are given regular opportunities to discuss, rehearse and organise their ideas through purposeful talk and collaborative learning before committing them to paper. Carefully sequenced teaching, explicit modelling, questioning and appropriate scaffolding enable pupils to progressively develop their skills and confidence.  Children learn to adapt their vocabulary, sentence structures, organisation and style according to purpose and audience. Editing and evaluation are embedded within the writing process, encouraging pupils to become reflective learners who take pride in improving their work with understanding that writing is a complex process.

We are committed to ensuring that every child can succeed as a writer. Through assessment for learning, early identification of need and responsive teaching, we provide the support, challenge, practice and opportunities required for pupils to make strong progress from their individual starting points.

By the end of Year 6, pupils will have developed the knowledge, skills, vocabulary, stamina and confidence to write accurately, coherently and effectively. They will be equipped not only for the next stage of their education, but to use writing successfully throughout their lives.