Writing at Harpur Hill Primary School and Nursery
Intent
At Harpur Hill Primary School and Nursery, we believe that learning to write well for a range of purposes and audiences is fundamental to the wider success of children. We use Literacy Tree, a complete book-based English curriculum, to support our teaching of writing.
Literacy Tree places high-quality children’s literature at the heart of learning. Through immersion in carefully selected texts, children develop as confident readers and writers, learning how authors craft language and applying this understanding to their own writing.
As a whole school approach, it provides full coverage of all National Curriculum expectations for writing composition, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary, alongside spelling and reading comprehension, all taught in meaningful contexts.
The texts studied include award-winning authors and a rich range of contemporary and classic voices. Authors include past and present Children’s Laureates such as Michael Rosen, Lauren Child, Malorie Blackman, Joseph Coelho and Julia Donaldson, alongside modern classics such as Roald Dahl and Michael Morpurgo and literary heritage texts including Oscar Wilde, C.S. Lewis and Shakespeare.
Diversity and representation are woven throughout the curriculum. The carefully curated selection of texts reflects a wide range of cultures, identities and experiences, supporting our school aim to celebrate diversity. Themes explored include
environmental responsibility, tolerance, bravery, acceptance and understanding difference.
Implementation
The curriculum is led and overseen by the English curriculum leader, who regularly monitors, evaluates and reviews English teaching and learning, celebrating and sharing good practice.
In Nursery, children engage in high-quality provision with continuous opportunities for mark making, gross and fine motor development and purposeful talk. Staff model reading and writing for meaningful purposes throughout provision.
Our Reception class follows the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum whilst Key Stage 1 and 2 follow the National Curriculum knowledge and skills for writing: transcription; composition; and vocabulary, grammar and punctuation.
From Year 1 to Year 6, writing is taught through Literacy Tree’s carefully sequenced planning known as Writing Roots. Each sequence is built around a high-quality text and begins with immersion activities designed to engage and inspire pupils.
Children read as writers, analysing vocabulary choices, sentence construction, grammar and cohesion before applying these techniques within their own writing. Grammar and punctuation are taught explicitly within meaningful contexts rather than in isolation.
The curriculum follows a spiral approach, revisiting key objectives within and across year groups. This ensures knowledge is secured and applied with increasing sophistication as pupils move through the school.
Throughout each sequence, pupils plan, draft, edit and redraft their writing. Teachers provide modelling, scaffolding and targeted support where needed so that all pupils can access age-related expectations. Children are encouraged to take increasing responsibility for proofreading and editing with the reader in mind.
A typical lesson may include:
• Responding to feedback
• Revisiting prior learning
• Reading comprehension and discussion
• Reading as a writer
• Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation exploration
• Modelled and shared writing
• Paired talk and oral rehearsal
• Independent writing
• Editing and proofreading
Handwriting
Writing also depends on fluent, legible and eventually speedy handwriting. In Early Years and Year 1 we use print and follow the script advised by Little Wandle, and we use the Sassoon infant font when using computers. Once children are secure, we introduce joins using a cursive script.
Spelling
Spellings are taught according to the rules and words contained in Appendix 1 of the English National Curriculum. Teachers use Literacy Tree Spelling Seeds to support their teaching and to provide contextualised activities that link directly to the studied text.
Children in Key Stage 2 use the Spelling Shed programme to practise spellings as homework.
When marking work, teachers identify words that children have spelt incorrectly from within that child’s known ability. These are identified with an ‘sp’ in the margin. Children are encouraged to identify and correct these spellings independently.
Impact
Children take ownership of their progress and are aware of their strengths and areas for development in writing.
The impact of the writing curriculum is measured through regular assessment of pupils’ writing across English lessons and across the wider curriculum. Teachers identify age-related expectations and key performance indicators for each year group.
Progress is monitored by subject leaders and the senior leadership team through book looks, lesson observations, pupil voice interviews, data analysis and learning walks.
As Literacy Tree becomes embedded, children develop as confident writers who understand audience and purpose. By upper Key Stage 2, most genres are familiar and pupils demonstrate creativity, sustained writing and increasingly sophisticated grammar and punctuation choices.
Children readily discuss the books they study and reflect on the effectiveness of their own writing. This develops authorial intent and the ability to choose language deliberately for a range of purposes and audiences.
High-quality writing across a variety of genres can be seen in English books. Pupils leave for secondary school as confident, independent writers equipped with the knowledge and skills needed for the next stage of their education.
English long term plan
Click on the link for further information - Long Term English Plan
Literacy Tree Curriculum Plans
We use the 'Literacy Tree' published scheme to help plan and teach writing across the KS1 and KS2. Click below to see more detail for each year group -
Click on the link for further information - Literacy Tree curriculum maps
Early Writing
Please see the leaflets attached below for how to support your child with writing at each stage of their early development.
'Write with me' tips for Parents
Writing in Reception and Year One
To ensure that children are getting the most from their writing tasks at home we would like to share a few tips about early writing with you:
- Always ensure your child has their phonics grid when completing writing tasks.
- Don’t worry about spelling mistakes – at this age we expect children to spell phonetically. So, let your child sound out the word and write it independently. (You could write the correct spelling above the word if you wanted to, after they have finished and only if they ask for help as we don’t want them to feel their writing isn’t good enough).
For example, if your child wanted to write 'The giant is wearing a hat to keep his head warm' and wrote it like this 'The jighant is wairing a hat to keep his hed worm' - this would be fine (even though some words are spelt incorrectly they are phonetically plausible and exactly what we expect at this stage).
- When writing a word, encourage your child to listen to the sounds in the word- use your Fred Fingers to count the sounds.
- If your child is unsure of how to write a sound, encourage them to have a look at their phonics grid to help them.
- In Reception, some children will be able to write a simple sentence whilst some children will be at the stage of writing words and labels. This is ‘typical and usual’ development.
When your child is writing a word, encourage them to follow these steps;
- Say the word out loud 3 times.
- Count how many sounds are in your word using your Fred Fingers.
- Write your word, sounding out each word, using your Fred Fingers and phonics grid to help.
When your child is writing a sentence encourage them to follow these steps;
- Say the sentence out loud 3 times.
- Count how many words are in your sentence.
- Write your sentence, sounding out each word, using your phonics grid to help.
- Read your sentence to check it makes sense.
- Check you have the perfect sentence. Do you have a capital letter to start? Finger spaces in between words? A full stop at the end of your sentence?
