WRITING

At Becket, our aim is for every child to write fluently, confidently and with pride. By combining rich, high-quality texts, explicit teaching, structured talk and high expectations, we empower children to see themselves as writers who can communicate effectively, creatively and purposefully across the curriculum and beyond.

We believe that all children should have meaningful opportunities to express their ideas, thoughts and creativity through writing. To support this, we use Ready Steady Write from Literacy Counts, a research-informed approach that develops confident, independent and successful writers with high aspirations.

The writing curriculum has been carefully designed to ensure that all children master the foundational skills of writing and learn to write fluently for a target audience with a clear purpose. Through engaging, vocabulary-rich texts, writing is taught as a structured, creative and purposeful process, enabling pupils to develop accuracy, fluency and their own distinctive writer’s voice.

Our Approach

It is considered that spoken language is the foundation of effective writing. Through structured talk, drama and vocabulary exploration, children learn to organise and express their ideas orally before committing them to paper. This ensures that writing is thoughtful, coherent and purposeful.

Key curriculum principles of writing include:

• Focus on sentence accuracy, grammar and punctuation
• Daily modelled and shared writing
• Regular, purposeful opportunities for editing and redrafting
• High expectations for presentation and pride in written work
• Inclusive teaching that enables every child to succeed

From Year 1, children are taught to self-assess and edit their writing using a purple pen, helping them to reflect on their work and make meaningful improvements. Editing and redrafting are embedded across all year groups and are an essential part of the writing process.

Writing Structure

Each year is broken down into a series of writing units which all follow a clear and consistent teaching sequence, supported by shared symbols across the school:

• Immerse / Jump in – engaging with high-quality example text and vocabulary
• Analyse / Look – exploring structure, language features, audience and purpose to build Writer’s Knowledge (Wise Owl)
• Plan / Say & Plan – organising and developing ideas
• Write / Say & Write – independent writing

This structured approach ensures children understand how high-quality writing is constructed and how to apply these skills independently.

Grammar, Spelling and Handwriting

• Grammar is taught throughout the writing process, with a focus on grammar that is relevant and embedded within the text type being studied. Daily sentence accuracy sessions allow children to practise and apply grammar and punctuation in context.
• Spelling is taught daily using a clear teach, practise and test approach across the week. We use Spelling Shed to deliver our spelling curriculum in school, and children also access Spelling Shed at home to reinforce learning.
• Handwriting is taught explicitly from Year 1, with a focus on clear and legible letter formation. Joining is introduced in Year 2, and expectations for fluent, joined handwriting continue throughout all year groups.