At Mount Wise Community Primary School, we place a huge emphasis on the power that words hold: be that orally, in print or communicated through writing. Empowering our children to be able to articulate their thoughts and feelings when they put pen to paper is what underpins much of our curriculum. Sitting at the core of many of lessons is the opportunity for children to write and express themselves; being able to communicate ideas and emotions with pleasure and increasing ease, fluency and sophistication prepares the children for a life-long relationship with the subject that underpins not only education but our society too. In essence, the writing curriculum enables children’s learning journey, arming them with a skill to take them through life. Our learners find their ‘voice’ in writing from a rich diet of inspiring, high-quality and diverse texts and extensive opportunities to share their ideas and orally rehearse before crafting their piece for a genuine audience, with a genuine purpose with genuine passion. Our teachers expertly support the children to select and structure material in a way that simplifies the intricate and interconnected discipline that is writing through clear and accessible methods. By writing for different purposes and audiences, pupils will gain the ‘cultural capital’ that is necessary to become educated citizens and to succeed in all areas of the curriculum and in life beyond school. Learning the skills of writing and then being able to translate thought into written form will support pupils in formulating their own ideas, their own values and their own beliefs. Developing and using a broad vocabulary will ensure that pupils are able to articulate and express themselves in a way that allows the reader to appreciate their viewpoints. At Mount Wise Community Primary School, our writing curriculum follows the objectives of the National Curriculum.

The aims of teaching writing, as outlined in the National Curriculum, are to ensure that all pupils:

• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for writing

• write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences

At Mount Wise Community Primary, our aim is for all children to enjoy their writing and produce their best every time, which means having solid foundations on which to build their creativity. In order to ensure that each child has these solid foundations, we follow the progressive Letter Join handwriting scheme, which uses research-based methods to support all children in correctly forming letters and numbers. Additionally, we also adhere to the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme, where the children are carefully taught the intricate relationship between letters and sounds at a stage which is right for them. Supporting the importance of phonetic knowledge, our children use Read Write Inc Spelling to further their understanding of word and spelling structure as they progress beyond the initial Read Write Inc Phonics programme. 

Children who need additional support to keep up with their peers in phonics are given tailored small group or 1:1 daily interventions (following the Read Write Inc principles) whilst those children who need additional support with handwriting attend small group sessions weekly. 

To ensure that our pupils receive a well-rounded writing experience, we follow a rolling programme that has been created in collaboration with the Learning Academies Trust. This involves immersing the children in powerful 'hooks' and exploring a range of examples for each genre they are learning; completing key grammar lessons which match the chosen genre and then applying these in context, using modelled, shared and then independent practice. 

Our writing curriculum is also enhanced by opportunities to write for pleasure and for purpose, such as when our fabulous pupils planned, wrote and performed their own amazing poems to celebrate National Poetry Day.