Writing

Longmoor’s writing curriculum has been carefully designed to provide a rich, progressive, and purposeful writing experience for all children from Nursery to Year 6. Fully aligned with the National Curriculum, it is underpinned by our vision to ensure every child can write fluently by the time they complete their primary school journey. We aim to foster creativity, independence, and a love of writing, while maintaining high standards through consistent and research-informed teaching practices.

At Longmoor, our writing curriculum is structured around six key threads that are deliberately sequenced and revisited to build knowledge and skills over time:

• Transcription (handwriting, spelling, punctuation).
• Composition (structure, vocabulary, sentence fluency).
• Oracy and oral composition (spoken language, empathy, idea development).
• Grammar and sentence construction.
• Planning, drafting, revising, and editing.
• Genre knowledge (features, purpose, structure).

These threads are introduced from the Early Years Foundation Stage through our communication and language curriculum, alongside targeted development of gross and fine motor skills. Early writing is nurtured through mark-making, oral storytelling, and the formation of letters using letter families. This foundation enables a smooth transition into Key Stage 1 and beyond, where pupils encounter increasingly structured teaching of writing skills aligned with the National Curriculum. These core threads are revisited and built upon year-on-year to support retention and progression.

Our handwriting policy reinforces this journey, beginning in Nursery and culminating in fluent, joined handwriting by the end of Key Stage 2, ensuring consistency in expectations and provision across all year Groups.

To support effective delivery, we use Pathways to Write to inform our planning and teaching. This has been strategically adapted to meet the specific needs of our pupils, including those who are disadvantaged and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). This adaptation ensures appropriate challenge, accessibility, and opportunities for success at every stage.

Furthermore, the curriculum is carefully sequenced to ensure progression in disciplinary (procedural) knowledge, with units designed to build logically on what has come before. Each unit begins with a focus on key skills and knowledge from previous learning that are revisited and consolidated. This, alongside wider year group SPaG, are explicitly taught at the start of each lesson to secure foundational understanding and address misconceptions.

Following this, new, core learning is introduced. These are taught explicitly using high-quality models, shared writing, guided practice, and discussion. Alongside this, pupils engage with Feature Keys, which explore the genre-specific conventions required for the final writing outcome. These are introduced through rich examples and applied incrementally as children build towards an independent piece.

To support long-term retention and independence, our pedagogy is rooted in the EEF’s Five-a-Day principles, which are embedded throughout the curriculum:

• Explicit Instruction: Clear modelling and guided practice are central to each lesson.
• Metacognitive Strategies: Pupils are taught to plan, monitor, and evaluate their writing, often through oral composition and self-reflection.
• Scaffolding: Targeted scaffolds are used and gradually withdrawn as pupils become more secure.
• Flexible Groupings: These allow for responsive teaching and tailored support without limiting aspiration.
• Use of Technology: Tools such as typing aids are used where appropriate to support access and remove barriers, especially for pupils with SEND and specific literacy barriers.

As a result, pupils develop deep disciplinary writing knowledge, including how to:

• Organise ideas effectively for purpose and audience.
• Use grammar and punctuation with accuracy and effect.
• Select and apply vocabulary with intent and precision.
• Plan, draft, revise, and edit their work with increasing independence.
• Apply genre-specific features confidently in a range of contexts.

Furthermore, our writing curriculum is built on the principle that strong transcriptional foundations are essential for confident and fluent writing. Phonics, delivered through Read Write Inc, is the starting point for all writing in the Early Years and Key Stage 1. It provides children with the essential skills to segment, blend, and apply sounds in their writing with increasing independence. As children progress, Lexia is used as a targeted intervention to support reading, spelling, and word-level understanding. This research-based tool reinforces the core skills needed for successful writing, helping pupils, particularly those who require additional support, to build accuracy, confidence, and stamina in their written work.

Additionally, SEND and disadvantaged pupils are supported throughout this journey via adaptive teaching, high-quality scaffolding, and targeted interventions. We are committed to ensuring that all children, regardless of starting point, have the tools and support they need to succeed in writing.

At Longmoor, our approach to teaching writing is grounded in consistency, high expectations, and carefully planned progression. Each unit follows a clearly structured sequence that is carefully designed to be progressive, to revisit previously taught content, and to maintain high expectations for all learners. This deliberate sequencing ensures the cumulative development of knowledge and skills within lessons, across units, and throughout each year group.

Each year group’s objectives have been carefully broken down into a Curriculum Overview, which teachers follow each half term to ensure that all essential objectives are systematically covered. This provides a clear structure for teaching and helps to ensure that children are introduced to the key knowledge and skills they need at each stage of their learning.

These objectives are revisited frequently throughout the year through retrieval, practice and application, giving children repeated opportunities to strengthen their understanding and embed their learning. This ensures that important knowledge is not simply taught and moved on from, but becomes secure and readily accessible for children to use in different contexts.

Our Pathways to Write planning supports the delivery of these objectives through engaging, text-based learning. High-quality texts provide meaningful contexts for children to develop their vocabulary, explore language and practise the writing skills identified within the curriculum objectives.

Communication and language and oral composition play a central role in our pedagogy. Children engage in structured discussion and rehearsal of ideas before writing, supporting their metacognitive development and ability to reflect on and refine their work. This oral rehearsal is particularly effective in helping children develop empathy, voice, and purpose in their writing.

Throughout each unit, teachers make strategic use of scaffolding tools such as model texts, sentence stems, working walls, and writing frames. These supports are gradually reduced as pupils grow in confidence and independence. Groupings in writing lessons are flexible, allowing targeted support for pupils with additional needs, including those with SEND and those who are disadvantaged.

Technology is thoughtfully integrated to enhance teaching and learning, including assistive tools for pupils with barriers to transcription. The unit culminates in a final independent write, where pupils demonstrate their ability to apply the Mastery Keys effectively. This consistent pedagogical approach ensures that all children experience a coherent, ambitious writing curriculum that builds over time and enables them to thrive as writers.

At Longmoor, we recognise that all learners must have equitable access to the writing curriculum, and we take a research-informed, carefully designed approach to ensure this is the case. Our adaptations are subject-specific and rooted in best practice to support those with SEND, those who are disadvantaged, and any pupil requiring additional support.

Our writing pedagogy is underpinned by the EEF’s Five-a-Day principles, which are specifically recommended for supporting pupils with SEND but are highly effective for all learners.

These include:

•  Explicit instruction, used consistently in writing to model vocabulary, grammar, and structure.
•  Cognitive and metacognitive strategies, which develop self-regulation and independence in the writing process (such as planning, monitoring, and editing).
•  Scaffolding, such as sentence stems, modelled examples, and writing frames, which are carefully reduced over time.
•  Flexible groupings, enabling pupils to receive targeted input according to their current need rather than ability labels.
•  Use of technology, including access arrangements like speech-to-text software or typing tools for those who face transcriptional barriers.

Additionally, our handwriting policy is progressive and developmental, beginning in Nursery with gross motor development and progressing through to fluent, joined handwriting by the end of KS2. This structured approach not only supports the development of transcriptional fluency, but also acts as a valuable diagnostic tool: staff are able to identify early whether a child may require further gross or fine motor intervention in readiness to write. It supports teachers in recognising and responding to writing - specific barriers, including difficulties with grip, stamina, and letter formation.

To support spelling, vocabulary, and reading fluency (vital for fluency in writing) we use Lexia, a research-backed intervention programme. Lexia identifies gaps in pupils’ reading and spelling knowledge and provides personalised activities to address these areas. Importantly, it also offers measurable, real- time data, enabling teachers and leaders to track progress precisely and adjust support accordingly. This ensures that pupils with specific literacy difficulties receive timely, targeted interventions to improve their writing outcomes.

Teachers also make precise and effective subject-specific adaptations in the delivery of writing by:

•  Using working walls and visual scaffolds tailored to genre and sentence construction.
•  Providing oral composition opportunities to rehearse ideas before transcription.
•  Using high-quality model texts and co-constructed writing to demystify expectations.
•  The use of shared writes and sentence stems to remove the initial writing barrier for writers who may lack confidence or require a higher level of scaffolding.
•  Offering targeted intervention, for example in spelling, grammar, or writing stamina, based on formative assessment.
•  Creating bespoke learning tasks for pupils working on a personalised curriculum, tracked through BSquared, ensuring progress is measured from each child’s unique starting point.

These adaptations, embedded in our curriculum design and delivery, ensure that writing is not only accessible to all pupils, but also enables every child to make sustained progress and find success in their writing journey.

Assessment in writing at Longmoor is designed to be continuous, purposeful, and responsive, enabling teachers to accurately track progress and adapt teaching to meet the needs of all learners. Formative assessment is at the heart of daily practice and includes ongoing teacher observation, live marking, questioning, and responsive feedback. Teachers provide effective marking and feedback during and after lessons, with a clear expectation that pupils engage with and act upon this feedback to improve their writing. Misconceptions are addressed in real time, and flexible groupings allow for immediate, targeted intervention within lessons, particularly for those at risk of falling behind.

Each writing unit culminates in an independent final write, which forms the basis of the teacher’s termly summative assessment against the year group’s National Curriculum objectives. These assessments enable teachers to track progress and identify pupils who require further support or additional challenge. This is supplemented by termly formal grammar, spelling, and punctuation assessments, which provide numerical and measurable data to support teacher judgement and identify curriculum areas that need reteaching or reinforcement.

We also use Lexia, a research-backed intervention programme, which provides precise, measurable data on pupils’ reading and spelling progress. It highlights strengths and pinpoints gaps in foundational knowledge, enabling staff to target these areas to support overall writing development.

In addition, pupil conferencing, peer and self-assessment opportunities are built into units to develop metacognition and support children in recognising their own strengths and areas for improvement. Teachers track progress across genres and year groups to ensure children are applying key skills in a range of contexts and for different purposes and audiences.

For pupils working below age-related expectations, including those on personalised or pre-Key Stage pathways, assessment is carefully tracked using BSquared, ensuring all progress is recognised and celebrated from individual starting points.

Through this multi-layered approach to assessment, combining formative strategies, summative tasks, and diagnostic tools, we ensure all pupils are well supported to make progress in writing, and that teaching remains adaptive, informed, and ambitious for every learner.