Our writing curriculum inspires our children using a blend of real-life experiences, purposeful, rich cross-curricular links and high-quality fictional worlds. On their journey through Wordsworth Primary and Nursery School our children have opportunities to engage with a wide variety of literary texts including poems, picture books, non-fiction books, novels and visual texts alongside compelling learning experiences as inspiration for their own writing. Each of these stimuli has been carefully selected to reflect the context of our school community, real world issues and the thematic threads which follow our pupils throughout their schooling such as refugees, strong female characters and ethnic minority characters.
Hook lessons inspire the children at the start of each learning journey, igniting their interest in the subject matter and immersing them in their writing from the beginning. Initial lessons focus on reading into writing skills to engage with the plot and characters, followed by specific spelling, punctuation and grammar skills lessons which will be applied in the children’s written outcomes at the end of each journey. We encourage oracy throughout the writing process through use of talk partners, oral rehearsal of sentences and plans, paired writing and peer/group editing. Children work hard to improve their writing and learn the value of making improvements through editing and re-drafting before sharing their final piece.

The writing curriculum supports our children’s spiritual, social, moral and cultural development through exploration of issues affecting both their local community and wider society. Our children are able to experience life from many different points of view by writing in role as a wide range of different characters facing a variety of challenges. This helps to develop their empathy.

What you will see in classrooms:

• High quality texts used as inspiration and models for writing
• Progressive writing journeys based around a text
• Explicit modelling of skills and knowledge
• Scaffolds to support children’s understanding at all levels
• Speaking and listening skills developed through regular high-quality dialogue between both pupils with peers and adults
• A progression in skills understanding and application as children move through the school