Writing
At Clarkson Infant and Nursery School, our goal is simple: to help every child become a confident, motivated writer who enjoys expressing themselves. We understand the important role that Reception plays in building the foundations for writing.
‘To make sure children get off to the best start, and to give them the best chance of later success in writing, the emphasis in reception should be on building the foundations for it: transcription and composition. This means keeping things simple and doing things well.’
(The Writing Framework 2025)
By following the Read Write Inc programme, alongside daily handwriting practice and activities in provision which promote gross and fine motor development, children at Clarkson develop basic transcriptional skills. Alongside this, listening to stories 2 or 3 times a day (including following the Talk Through Stories planning from Read Write Inc) and learning to orally tell stories through the Tales Toolkit storytelling technique, our children also begin to foster a love of language and storytelling which develops their compositional skills.
Our KS1 writing curriculum is guided by Literacy Tree, an award-winning, complete book-based approach which uses high-quality children's literature to motivate children to write for a range of audiences and purposes. Our aim is to help our children to be engaged in and be curious about a variety of literary worlds and themes and to be excited about writing, seeing themselves as valued authors.
Our units of work – called writing roots - support the sequential building of skills, linking these skills and thinking how they can be applied across different types of writing.
‘We know that pupils learn new ideas by linking those ideas to existing knowledge…carefully sequencing knowledge to facilitate this process is important’
(DfE 2019)
The carefully-planned sequences of lessons provide opportunities for authentic writing, for a range of real-life audiences.
‘Having a reason to write and someone to write for (EEF 2021) is recognised as a factor that supports effective writing’ (Ofsted 2022)
Oral rehearsal activities are embedded in the units, supporting our Voice21 strategies and WordAware approach to learning new vocabulary. Children, who have enjoyed creating stories orally when using Tales Toolkit techniques, can begin to successfully record their compositions to create written stories.
Children have the opportunity to write daily with a variety of shorter, longer and extended written outcomes across a unit. This 'little and often' approach, gives the children frequent opportunities to practise writing, which impacts positively on their motivation, confidence and stamina.
‘Children who write more frequently, write better’ (EEF 2019)
During the year, skills and outcomes are revisited to practise and consolidate learning, embedding all National Curriculum requirements. Teaching, modelling and identifying grammar skills meaningfully, in the context of the fantastic texts explored in class, helps the children to apply their knowledge in their own writing.
Lessons here at Clarkson include:
- Fun and engagement through high quality genres and texts;
- High expectations and challenge for all, supported through appropriate scaffolding materials;
- Collaboration and reflection between peers, using Voice 21 techniques;
- First quality teaching from all adults
Literacy Tree texts are mapped out to ensure progression and National Curriculum coverage across KS1.
Our curriculum maps for Year 1 and Year 2 for 2025-2026 can be found below:
Please click on the image above for our writing overview