At Ladysmith Infant and Nursery School, we aim to nurture independent, confident and creative young writers who can express themselves with clarity and purpose. From their earliest mark‑making in Nursery to structured teaching of writing in Key Stage 1, we aim for children develop a rich vocabulary, secure foundational knowledge and an understanding that writing is a powerful way to communicate their ideas. We want every child to recognise themselves as a writer with something important to say, and able to write across a range of different contexts.
Our curriculum reflects the expectations of the DfE’s Writing Framework, ensuring that children build the essential knowledge and skills needed for successful writing. This includes strong transcriptional foundations—accurate spelling, fluent handwriting and secure sentence construction—alongside the compositional skills that help children generate, organise and improve their ideas. By embedding these fundamentals early and revisiting them regularly, we help children develop the automaticity they need to focus on meaning, creativity and clarity.
Purpose and audience sit at the heart of our approach. Children learn that they are writing for a reader and are encouraged to make thoughtful choices about vocabulary, grammar and structure. Talk plays a central role in this development: through storytelling, discussion, drama and shared language experiences, children rehearse ideas, practise sentence patterns and build the confidence needed to express themselves effectively in writing.
Our writing curriculum is built on high‑quality modelling, rich experiences and carefully sequenced learning that supports children from the very start of their writing journey.
In Nursery, children begin through Helicopter Stories, an approach that allows them to dictate their own stories and see them brought to life through acting and shared performance. This early experience helps children understand that their ideas matter, builds narrative understanding and strengthens the link between spoken and written language. Alongside this, children explore mark‑making, storytelling and oral sentence structures that lay the foundations for later writing.
In Reception, children continue to develop transcription skills through our Read Write Inc phonics programme, while also learning how to share ideas, tell stories and write for different purposes.
As children move through Reception and Key Stage 1, we use the Book Buds and Book Writes sequences to ensure teaching is explicit, structured and responsive to children’s developmental needs. Each writing unit begins with immersion in a high‑quality text. Children explore the text, the language and themes in depth, building background knowledge and vocabulary before they begin to write.
Teachers model the writing process clearly, demonstrating how ideas are generated, how vocabulary is chosen and how sentences are crafted. By sharing their thinking aloud, teachers give children a clear insight into how writers make decisions.
Learning is sequenced so that children move from understanding the bigger picture of a text to focusing on the smaller details that bring writing to life. Lessons are broken into manageable chunks to support memory, reduce cognitive overload and allow children to revisit and secure key skills. Short‑burst writing gives children regular opportunities to rehearse language, refine ideas and build stamina before applying their learning independently.
Across each unit, children learn to:
The importance of talk
Talking is a key part of learning to write. Children discuss ideas, practise sentences out loud and learn new vocabulary through conversation. Where helpful, we use retelling and story maps to help children learn story patterns and build strong narrative skills.
Grammar, punctuation and spelling
Children learn spelling, punctuation and grammar within their reading and writing lessons so they can use these skills in real and meaningful ways. These skills are taught clearly and carefully, helping children understand how they work in sentences and whole pieces of writing.
In Reception and Year 1, spelling is taught through our Read Write Inc phonics programme.
In Year 2, we follow the Essential Spelling programme to build strong, secure spelling knowledge.
Handwriting
Good handwriting helps children write down their ideas easily. We teach handwriting regularly in short, focused lessons. Teachers model how to form letters correctly, and children have lots of chances to practise.
Our writing curriculum develops confident, capable and enthusiastic writers who can communicate effectively across a range of genres. Children leave our school ready for KS2, with a strong sense of themselves as writers and the ability to write clearly and accurately for different audiences and purposes. They develop secure transcription skills, including spelling and handwriting, alongside growing confidence in composition, where they learn to generate, organise and improve their ideas.