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English - Writing
English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.
Intent
At St John’s Primary School, writing is a crucial part of our curriculum. We intend for pupils to be able to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style within and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. We also intend for pupils to leave school being able to use fluent and legible handwriting. Pupils will leave St John’s with a good knowledge of the spelling rules, the relationship between words, etymology and the ability to use figurative language. Thus ensuring they acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.
Implementation
English is planned for using the EYFS Framework and KS1 and KS2 school curriculum based on the National Curriculum. All children, from EYFS to Year 6, are provided with many and varied opportunities to develop and apply their writing skills across the curriculum. To be able to do this effectively, pupils will read widely and often and have access to a range of writing in differing genres and styles. They will also develop an awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar.
English writing is planned for following, ‘The Write Stuff’ written by Jane Considine and by also using high-quality texts. Teachers edit, adapt and write their own short-term planning, ensuring year-group specific skills and knowledge, grammar and spelling are enriching and weaved into the final written piece.
Impact
Children will make at least good progress in Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening from their last point of statutory assessment or from their data in Reception.
Children will use their English knowledge and skills, in all curriculum areas, to enable them to know more, remember more and understand more.
Children will have a love of Writing and make at least good progress in Writing from their last point of statutory assessment or from their data in Reception.
Children will use their Writing skills as a key tool in helping them to learn, and as a result, know more, remember more and understand more.
Foundational Skills
In response to the Writing Framework (DfE, 2025), we have carefully considered our approach to teaching writing and making sure that pupils consolidate and embed foundational writing skills to improve written fluency, and to support working memory when writing.
We have prioritised early writing, making sure that in EYFS and Key Stage 1 there is a strong focus on transcription through phonics lessons, explicit teaching of handwriting, and careful sequencing of teaching to build accuracy of sentence construction by the end of Key Stage 1, ready for Key Stage 2. This starts in EYFS with a focus on gross and fine motor skills and the introduction of explicit handwriting lessons, using the Little Wandle programme to ensure letter formation is taught and practised. We also ensure that pupils in EYFS and Key Stage 1 are immersed in language-rich environments, with lots of opportunities for oral composition, drawing on vocabulary found in high-quality stimulus texts that inspire their writing.
In Key Stage 2, we have made the decision to start the year focusing on handwriting and consolidation of foundational skills; identifying the grammatical pre-requisites for sentence writing from previous years that pupils need to embed, to support new learning. We use the Acorn writing progression grids which support planning by ensuring teachers know milestones for writing in term 2, 4 and 6.
Pupils in Key Stage 2 are taught the spelling element of transcription in discrete lessons, and practice these, and previously learnt common exception words and spelling rules. In-line with the National Curriculum appendix for spelling, we have created our own spelling progression, which is used across Key Stage 2.
We are working to ensure that our approach to foundation skills in writing is as rigorous as our systems for teaching phonics; this is an area of development for this year as we start to enact the guidance from the Writing Framework.
Our Foundational Skills in Writing Document outlines our approach in more detail.
