Writing at Eastling Primary School

At Eastling Primary School, we believe that every child is a writer. We aim to develop confident, enthusiastic and independent writers who can communicate effectively for a range of audiences and purposes. Through high-quality texts, rich vocabulary, meaningful writing opportunities and explicit teaching of writing skills, we nurture a love of language and a belief that every child can succeed as a writer.

Writing is at the heart of our curriculum. We recognise that writing is a complex process which draws upon speaking and listening, reading, vocabulary development, grammar, spelling, handwriting and composition. Our writing curriculum is carefully sequenced from Reception through to Year 6, ensuring that pupils progressively develop the knowledge, skills and confidence required to become successful writers.

Our Approach to Writing

We use The Write Stuff by Jane Considine as the foundation of our writing curriculum. This evidence-informed approach supports children to develop both the creativity and technical accuracy required for effective writing.

The Write Stuff enables pupils to:

• Experience high-quality modelled writing.
• Develop a rich and ambitious vocabulary.
• Build sentences through carefully sequenced learning.
• Understand how authors create meaning and impact.
• Apply grammar and punctuation in meaningful contexts.
• Develop stamina and independence as writers.
• Edit and improve their work effectively.

Lessons are structured to reduce cognitive overload and allow pupils to focus on small, manageable steps towards successful writing. Through carefully planned sentence-level work, pupils learn how to construct increasingly sophisticated sentences before applying these skills in extended pieces of writing.

High-Quality Texts

We believe that children become better writers when they are immersed in excellent literature. Across the school, writing is driven by carefully selected high-quality texts, poetry, visual stimuli and real-life experiences. These texts provide rich vocabulary, strong language models and engaging contexts for writing.

Children encounter a wide range of genres including stories, poetry, information texts, reports, explanations, persuasive writing, letters, diaries, balanced arguments and newspaper articles. Through studying these texts, pupils learn how writers make deliberate choices to engage and influence their readers.

Vocabulary and Oracy

Vocabulary development is central to our writing curriculum. Research consistently highlights the importance of vocabulary knowledge in supporting both reading and writing development.

Through discussion, oral rehearsal, drama, storytelling and structured talk opportunities, pupils are encouraged to explore language before writing. Children are explicitly taught ambitious vocabulary and are supported to understand, practise and apply new words within their own writing.

By developing pupils' spoken language alongside their writing, we ensure that children have ideas worth writing about and the language needed to express them effectively.

Grammar, Punctuation and Sentence Construction

Grammar and punctuation are taught both discretely and within the context of writing. We use Classroom Secrets Grammar alongside our writing curriculum to ensure that grammatical knowledge is systematically developed and revisited.

Children are taught how language works and how authors make choices to create particular effects. Rather than learning grammar in isolation, pupils are encouraged to apply grammatical knowledge purposefully within their own writing.

Throughout the school, children learn to:

• Construct accurate sentences.
• Vary sentence structures.
• Use a growing range of punctuation.
• Manipulate language for effect.
• Develop cohesion across longer pieces of writing.
• Write with increasing precision and control.

Phonics, Spelling and Transcription

Writing development begins in Reception through our systematic synthetic phonics programme, Supersonic Phonic Friends. Children learn the relationship between sounds and letters and apply this knowledge in both reading and writing. As phonics knowledge develops, children become increasingly confident at segmenting words and spelling independently.

As pupils progress through the school, spelling is taught through Spelling Shed, ensuring a clear progression of phonics, spelling patterns, morphology and etymology. Children are encouraged to apply spelling knowledge accurately within their independent writing.

Handwriting and Presentation

We place great importance on handwriting and presentation. Children are explicitly taught correct letter formation from the earliest stages of writing. As they move through the school, pupils develop a fluent joined handwriting style which supports writing stamina and composition.

We encourage children to take pride in their work and present their writing neatly and accurately.

Editing and Improving

Effective writers review and improve their work. Children are taught to edit and refine their writing throughout the writing process. Through teacher feedback, self-assessment and peer discussion, pupils learn to identify strengths and make purposeful improvements to their writing.

Assessment

Writing is assessed continuously through daily teaching, formative assessment and regular independent writing opportunities. Teachers carefully identify next steps and provide targeted support or challenge to ensure all pupils make strong progress.

Where pupils require additional support, timely interventions are put in place to help them keep up and succeed.

The Impact

By the time children leave Eastling Primary School, they are equipped to write confidently, accurately and creatively across a wide range of genres. They understand the power of language, have a secure command of writing conventions and are able to communicate effectively for different audiences and purposes.

Most importantly, we want our children to leave Eastling as writers who enjoy writing, take pride in their work and recognise themselves as successful authors.