Writing at Longlands Primary School

Inspiring excellence. Empowering every child to become a confident, accurate and independent writer.

 

Our approach

At Longlands Primary School, we believe that every child can learn to write successfully. Writing enables pupils to communicate, think, learn and participate fully in school and in later life. Our curriculum is therefore designed to secure the knowledge, fluency and independence pupils need to express increasingly complex ideas clearly and accurately.

Our statutory curriculum is the National Curriculum for English and the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework. We use the Department for Education’s Writing Framework as non-statutory, evidence-informed guidance to strengthen how writing is taught from Reception to Year 6. Our approach also reflects Ofsted’s current expectations that curriculum and teaching are coherent, ambitious and inclusive, and that pupils build secure knowledge and achieve well from their different starting points.

Pathways to Write provides the central structure for our writing curriculum. Alongside it, Longlands has two additional curriculum spines:

• Foundational Knowledge: the essential knowledge and increasingly fluent transcription skills that enable pupils to write, including handwriting, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and sentence construction.
• Executive Skills: the thinking and self-regulation involved in planning, organising, drafting, monitoring, revising, editing and evaluating writing.

Together, these three strands ensure that pupils are not simply completing writing tasks. They are taught explicitly how written language works, how writers make decisions and how to apply what they know with increasing independence.

 

Intent: what we want for our pupils

Our intent is for every pupil to become a fluent, motivated and thoughtful writer who can communicate effectively for different purposes, audiences and subjects. We want pupils to leave Longlands able to translate ideas into writing with increasing ease, accuracy and control.

We aim to ensure that pupils:

• develop secure spoken language, vocabulary and sentence knowledge as foundations for composition;
• form letters fluently and legibly, and spell with increasing accuracy and automaticity;
• understand how grammar, punctuation and text structure shape meaning;
• draw upon high-quality reading and rich model texts when making choices as writers;
• plan, draft, revise, edit and evaluate their writing with increasing independence;
• write accurately and meaningfully across the curriculum, not only in English lessons;
• receive timely teaching and support when earlier knowledge is insecure, while continuing to access an ambitious curriculum; and
• develop confidence, stamina, motivation and a positive identity as writers.

Why we teach writing in this way

Writing is cognitively demanding. Pupils must generate and organise ideas while also controlling handwriting, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation. When transcription is slow or insecure, it can place a heavy demand on working memory and prevent pupils from concentrating fully on composition.

For this reason, we teach foundational knowledge explicitly and practise key transcription skills every day. We also teach the writing process directly so that pupils learn how to plan, monitor and improve their work rather than being expected to discover these processes for themselves. Structured talk before writing allows pupils to develop ideas, rehearse vocabulary and compose sentences orally before recording them.

This design is particularly important for pupils with gaps in prior learning, pupils with SEND, disadvantaged pupils and pupils who join the school at different points. Teachers identify the specific barrier, teach prerequisite knowledge, adapt instruction and provide purposeful scaffolds. Support is reduced as pupils become more secure, so that scaffolding leads to independence rather than dependence.

Implementation: how writing is taught at Longlands

A coherent curriculum through Pathways to Write

Longlands follows Pathways to Write through a two-year rolling programme of carefully selected, high-quality texts. In 2026-2027, pupils are following Set 1; Set 2 will follow in 2027-2028. The programme gives pupils repeated opportunities to encounter, practise and apply key writing knowledge across a carefully sequenced journey.

Each unit is rooted in a rich text and leads towards a purposeful written outcome. Teachers use the Pathways sequence to assess prior learning, teach new knowledge explicitly, model expert choices, guide practice and prepare pupils for increasingly independent writing. The published programme is adapted where necessary to respond to assessment while preserving the intended year-group ambition and progression.

Talk Before You Write

Before every writing lesson, pupils take part in Talk Before You Write. Structured talk is not an additional activity after planning; it is an essential part of learning to compose. Pupils retrieve relevant knowledge, explore vocabulary, generate ideas, orally rehearse sentences and improve them through discussion before committing them to paper.

Think  >  Talk  >  Rehearse  >  Improve  >  Write  >  Reflect

Teachers model precise spoken and written language, provide sentence-level rehearsal and ensure that all pupils participate. This helps pupils move from spoken language to written language and gives teachers immediate opportunities to check understanding and address misconceptions.

Daily foundational practice

Across the school, pupils receive explicit teaching and daily practice in:

• Handwriting, to develop an efficient pencil grip, accurate letter formation, appropriate joining, legibility and fluency.
• Spelling, including phonics, orthographic patterns, morphology, word origins where appropriate and the accurate application of taught words.
• Dictation, to practise the coordinated application of spelling, handwriting, sentence construction and punctuation within manageable cognitive demands.

Daily practice is short, purposeful and connected to pupils’ assessed needs. Teachers ensure that practice is accurate because repeated errors can become embedded. Pupils who have not secured age-appropriate transcription receive additional explicit teaching and sufficient practice, including older pupils who still need this support.

Explicit sentence and composition teaching

Teachers explicitly teach sentence construction, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation in meaningful contexts. Knowledge is introduced in manageable steps, modelled clearly and practised through guided and independent application. Grammar is taught as a tool for communicating meaning, not as isolated terminology.

Pupils study effective models, discuss the intended reader and purpose, and learn how writers organise ideas within sentences, paragraphs and whole texts. Teachers use shared and modelled writing, including thinking aloud, to make the decisions of an expert writer visible.

The writing process and executive skills

Pupils are taught that writing is a process. They learn age-appropriate ways to generate and organise ideas, draft sections, reread for meaning, revise content and structure, edit transcription errors and evaluate whether the writing has achieved its purpose.

Responsibility is released gradually through teacher modelling, shared construction, guided practice, collaborative rehearsal and independent application. Feedback is timely and focused. Pupils act upon it during the writing process, while teachers avoid overloading them with too many improvement points at once.

Reading, vocabulary and spoken language

Reading and writing are closely connected. Carefully selected Pathways texts expose pupils to ambitious vocabulary, varied sentence structures and effective text organisation. Teachers draw attention to how authors create meaning and effect, while ensuring that writing remains a taught discipline with its own carefully sequenced knowledge.

Spoken language supports every stage of composition. Discussion, oral storytelling, role-play, sentence rehearsal and purposeful vocabulary practice help pupils clarify ideas and prepare for writing. Teachers provide explicit language support where pupils need it, including pupils with speech, language and communication needs and pupils learning English as an additional language.

Inclusion and responsive teaching

Our writing curriculum is ambitious for every pupil. Assessment identifies what a pupil already knows, the precise barrier to success and the next knowledge or strategy that must be taught. Teachers may adapt the size of the step, the model, the amount of oral rehearsal, the vocabulary support, the writing tool or the scaffold, without unnecessarily reducing the intellectual ambition of the outcome.

Intervention is short, targeted and connected to classroom teaching wherever possible. Teachers check whether pupils can transfer newly secured knowledge into independent writing. Scaffolds are reviewed and withdrawn as soon as pupils are ready.

Writing across the curriculum

Pupils apply writing knowledge in subjects such as science, history, geography and religious education. Writing tasks are used when they deepen or demonstrate subject learning. Teachers ensure that pupils have the necessary subject knowledge and vocabulary before writing, and maintain the school’s expectations for sentence accuracy, handwriting and spelling across the curriculum.

Assessment and professional judgement

Assessment is integral to teaching. Teachers use observation, questioning, oral rehearsal, dictation, sentence work, pupil conferencing and independent writing to identify strengths and misconceptions. Assessment is used to decide the next teaching step, not simply to produce a score.

Independent writing is considered alongside evidence gathered over time. Teachers use the school’s termly writing expectations, National Curriculum requirements and relevant statutory assessment guidance. Moderation within school and with colleagues supports consistent professional judgement. Leaders evaluate the enacted curriculum through pupils’ work, discussions with pupils and staff, assessment information and visits to lessons, with particular attention to pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils.

 

Impact: how we know the curriculum is working

The intended impact is that pupils become increasingly fluent, accurate, confident and independent writers. They build secure knowledge over time and can apply it in new texts and across subjects. Transcription becomes less effortful, allowing pupils to devote more attention to composition, meaning and the reader.

We expect pupils to:

• write with increasingly fluent, legible handwriting and accurate spelling;
• construct and punctuate sentences accurately, with growing control and variety;
• select vocabulary and organisational choices that suit the intended reader and purpose;
• use planning, drafting, revising, editing and evaluating strategies with increasing independence;
• explain what they are learning, the choices they have made and how they have improved their work;
• apply taught knowledge in independent writing and across the wider curriculum; and
• make strong progress from their starting points, including pupils with SEND, disadvantaged pupils and those requiring additional support.

We evaluate impact through the quality and accuracy of pupils’ work over time, the reduction of repeated misconceptions, pupils’ fluency and independence, and the extent to which learning transfers to new contexts. Leaders use this evidence to refine the curriculum, direct professional development and ensure that agreed approaches are implemented consistently.

 

 

Year Group Writing Journey