Our Strategy

Our Writing Strategy is designed to align closely with Ofsted’s Strong Foundations in the First Years of School report and the Writing Framework, ensuring that every child secures the key knowledge and skills needed for successful writing.

 

​​We prioritise strong foundations in writing from the very start with the teaching of handwriting and spelling a key part of the curriculum in Reception so that children develop secure transcription skills early on. We believe that when these skills become automatic, pupils can focus more confidently on expressing their ideas in writing. 

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Our writing journey which develops both transcription and composition from Y2 to Y6 continues this drive on foundational skills and  is reviewed regularly in light of our demographic.  We place high quality class texts at the core of the journey to ignite interest and curiosity and develop the children's knowledge of genre.  Knowledge and skills are sequenced and broken down appropriately to reduce cognitive load. The small step modelling which we have identified as a valuable next step is a  school development priority.  Sentence-level understanding is at the heart of this journey as well. We are committed to teaching sentences explicitly and the first phase of our New Writing Curriculum has been sentence level progression this year.  We teach children how sentences work and help them apply grammar within real writing tasks rather than isolated exercises. Strong sentence knowledge enables children to write with accuracy, clarity and purpose. 

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When children move through school with gaps in their foundational knowledge—such as handwriting, spelling, or sentence construction—these are identified and tracked through our Early Writing Development Strategy and the Birmingham Toolkits. Teachers use ongoing assessment to inform lesson planning, providing regular opportunities for pupils to revisit, practise, and strengthen these essential skills within meaningful writing contexts. This approach ensures that all children continue to build fluency, accuracy, and confidence as writers, enabling them to progress securely through each stage of their education.

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Through our newly revised Teaching and Learning Model, we teach writing in small, sequenced steps that reduce cognitive load
Because writing is complex and places high demands on working memory, we follow a carefully structured approach. This ensures children master essential skills—such as forming sentences—before moving on to more complex tasks and extended writing. 

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We also believe in quality rather than quantity. We do not expect pupils to write at length . Instead, we ensure they become secure in the building blocks of writing so that when they do write more extensively, they do so with control and precision.​

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We are committed to strengthening spoken language as a foundation for writing
Oral rehearsal is central to our approach. Children are encouraged to compose sentences aloud, rehearse ideas verbally and use talk to structure their thinking before writing. This supports both confidence and fluency.

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We know our children well and identify and support children who need help as early as possible.
Early identification of pupils who may struggle with writing allows us to tailor teaching and provide additional practice, ensuring that every child can make strong progress.  We are committed to developing progressive curriculum from Birth to 5, tracking progress developmentally not chronologically. We have developed an Early Writing Curriculum for children not yet ready to write formally.  

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We believe in developing a positive writing culture across our school and like to celebrate progress and success. 
We aim to create a writing environment where teachers are well‑trained, expectations are consistent, and children take pride in becoming confident, capable writer​s.