Rack House Primary School

Foundations for Writing in Buddies and Nursery

At Rack House Primary School, our approach to writing begins in the very earliest years, grounded in the understanding that writing development starts long before a child holds a pencil. In our 2-year-old (Buddies) and Nursery provision, we prioritise creating a rich communication and language environment that underpins all early literacy development.

One of the most important things we can allow young children to do is play. Through play, children are learning in meaningful and natural ways. Play is crucial for developing pre-writing skills and preparing children for school readiness. By engaging in play-based activities that target fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, creativity, social skills, and cognitive development, children develop the foundational skills necessary for successful pre-writing abilities. Having dexterity, a good grip, developing fine motor skills, and the ability to use strength and force-not just in their fingers but in their whole body too-is essential.

Buddies (2-Year-Old Provision)

In our Buddies provision, writing begins through immersive, sensory-rich, play-based experiences. Children engage in purposeful mark-making using a range of materials and contexts, such as scribbling in sand, painting, or drawing story characters, often in continuous provision areas inspired by core texts like Dear Zoo and Monkey and Me.

Key components of pedagogy include:

• Oracy as a foundation for writing: Children are encouraged to join in with words, repeated phrases, animal sounds and storytelling actions to develop expressive language.
• Motor Development: Activities such as painting, building, threading, and following the Wiggle Me into Squiggle Movements scheme help develop gross motor and fine motor skills.
• Creative expression: Linked to texts, children describe their actions or choices (e.g. their monster outfit or favourite vehicle), building early compositional skills.

Nursery

In Nursery, writing instruction continues to focus on mark-making, drawing, vocabulary building and storytelling.

Key components of pedagogy include:

• Pre-writing shapes and symbolic representation in response to rich texts like The Gruffalo or Lubna and Pebble, with drawing tasks designed to scaffold story retelling and expressive thought.
• Oral composition: Children are supported to say simple sentences (4-6 words) about characters, settings or story events, laying the groundwork for sentence structure.
• Vocabulary development: Explicit vocabulary teaching from texts supports children to recall nouns and verbs and use them in speech and mark-making.

Writing in Reception

In Reception is rooted in purposeful, text-rich experiences that connect spoken language with early transcription skills. Children learn to compose sentences orally through high-quality texts, drama, and structured talk before moving to written forms. Writing is taught as a process using the “I do, we do, you do” model to support planning, drafting, and revising. Teachers model letter formation, word segmentation, and sentence construction through shared writing; scaffold learning with phonics mats, sentence starters, and visual prompts; and guide pupils toward independent writing using capital letters, finger spaces, and full stops. Transcription is taught systematically through the Little Wandle phonics programme and targeted handwriting instruction, ensuring secure letter formation and early spelling. Vocabulary and composition are embedded across the curriculum, with meaningful writing opportunities designed to develop motivation, language, and understanding—laying strong foundations for all pupils, including those with SEND or EAL.

Writing in Year One

At Rack House Primary School, writing in Year One is carefully structured to reduce cognitive load and build confident, independent writers. We explicitly teach transcription, sentence construction, and composition through a step-by-step approach that includes modelling, shared writing, and guided practice (“I do, we do, you do”). A key strategy is using the same high-quality texts from shared reading in writing lessons. This supports pupils’ metacognition by reducing the cognitive demand of content recall, allowing them to focus on sentence structure, vocabulary, and purpose. Children are encouraged to apply their phonics knowledge when spelling, using sound-letter correspondences to write phonetically plausible words as they compose. Through repeated exposure to model texts, pupils internalise genre conventions and language, which they then apply in meaningful writing tasks such as narratives, letters and descriptions. Grammar, punctuation and spelling are taught in context, revisited regularly, and sequenced for progression. This integrated, inclusive approach ensures all pupils- regardless of need- can plan, monitor and develop their writing with increasing independence.

Writing in Year Two

At Rack House Primary School, Year 2 writing is taught through a structured, inclusive approach that develops composition, transcription, and pupil confidence. Writing is based on high-quality core texts- different from those used in reading- allowing pupils to build subject-specific vocabulary and genre knowledge without overloading cognitive load. Shared reading supports understanding of structure and language, which pupils then apply using text-specific writing models. Writing is taught as a process using the “I do, we do, you do” approach, with explicit modelling of planning, drafting, editing and revising. Grammar is taught in context and phonics knowledge is applied to support accurate spelling and fluent handwriting. Pupils write for a range of purposes and audiences, and oracy strategies such as debate and role-play help develop vocabulary, empathy and voice. This evidence-informed approach ensures all learners, including those with SEND or EAL, become confident and capable writers.

Spelling in Key Stage One

At Rack House Primary School, the teaching of spelling in Key Stage One is systematic, explicit and responsive to pupil need. Spelling instruction is fully embedded within our writing curriculum, ensuring that pupils not only learn how to spell but also understand how spelling supports fluent, confident writing.

In Year One, children are taught to apply their phonics knowledge to segment and encode words as part of the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. This phonics-led approach ensures that children develop strong encoding habits, learning to use sound-letter correspondences to write phonetically plausible words. Alongside phonics, the Year One Common Exception Words are introduced, taught explicitly and revisited regularly in writing lessons to support accurate spelling of high-frequency irregular words.

As children transition into Year Two, we assess their phonics knowledge to identify any remaining gaps. Where needed, pupils continue with daily phonics instruction until they secure all Phase 5 grapheme-phoneme correspondences. A five-week Phase 5 review consolidates this knowledge before pupils begin our Bridge to Spelling programme. This carefully sequenced set of units bridges phonics and spelling by introducing key strategies such as segmenting, analogy, and morphological awareness. Once pupils are secure, they move onto Year Two Spelling Units, which build on phonics foundations and help pupils develop strategies for more complex patterns and vocabulary.

Throughout Key Stage One, spelling instruction is aligned across the key stage that spelling must be taught, not just tested. Teachers provide modelling, scaffolding, practice, and feedback as core elements of effective instruction. Children practise spelling in context during writing, as well as through targeted dictation and focused spelling practice. Explicit instruction of spelling strategies (e.g. using phoneme-grapheme mapping, recognising tricky parts of words, and drawing on known morphemes) enables pupils to develop both fluency and independence.

By combining structured progression with responsive assessment, our approach ensures that all pupils- including those with SEND or EAL- develop secure spelling knowledge and automaticity. This supports overall writing fluency, allowing children to concentrate more fully on composition and meaning.

Handwriting at Key Stage One

At Rack House Primary School, we prioritise the explicit teaching of handwriting in Key Stage 1 to develop fluency, accuracy, and automaticity- essential for reducing cognitive load during writing. To build this fluency, handwriting is taught daily for fifteen minutes immediately after lunch, providing pupils with regular, low-stakes practice that reinforces consistency and strengthens working memory.

Our handwriting lessons focus on correct letter formation, pencil grip, spatial awareness and alignment. Teachers model the process and product of handwriting explicitly, breaking down strokes and grouping letters with similar formations. Children practise writing individual letters, moving gradually to words and full sentences as accuracy and confidence increase.

By embedding handwriting practice as a daily routine, we ensure that pupils develop the motor skills and transcriptional fluency necessary to express their ideas clearly in extended writing. This short, focused session supports automaticity, allowing pupils to devote more cognitive resources to planning and composition across the curriculum.

Writing in Year Three to Year Six

At Rack House Primary School, writing in Key Stage 2 is taught through a consistent, research-informed pedagogy that nurtures fluent, purposeful and skilled writers. Across Years 3 to 6, we provide all pupils with a high-quality, knowledge-rich writing curriculum that reflects our values and broadens pupils’ understanding of the world. Central to our curriculum are texts that explore themes of environmental responsibility, refugee experience, foundational knowledge, SEMH (Social, Emotional and Mental Health), and Shakespearean literature, ensuring writing is meaningful, inclusive and socially conscious.

Our teaching structure is built around the writing process- planning, drafting, revising, editing and publishing- and uses the “I do, we do, you do” model to explicitly teach composition and transcription. Teachers model writing strategies, scaffold through shared and guided writing, and gradually release responsibility as pupils become more independent. This approach is reinforced by consistent use of the RAFT framework- Reason, Audience, Features, Tone- which is displayed and referred to on every English working wall, helping children internalise the compositional purpose of their writing tasks.

Each unit begins with purposeful reading and knowledge-building. Pupils explore rich vocabulary, structure, and authorial techniques through reading linked texts. Informed by this, they engage in targeted writing tasks- ranging from persuasive speeches and refugee narratives to environmental letters and Shakespearean monologues. Repetition of genres across the key stage supports working memory and enables children to deepen their understanding of textual features and grammar choices over time.

Grammar, punctuation and spelling are taught explicitly and in context. Teachers plan for grammar instruction that is embedded in writing outcomes, such as using modal verbs in persuasive texts or manipulating sentence structures in narrative writing. This approach ensures grammar is meaningful and applied with purpose.

Metacognition is built into the pedagogy. Pupils are taught to plan, monitor and evaluate their writing through tools such as graphic organisers, oral rehearsal, peer critique, and self-reflection. This strengthens their ability to articulate authorial intent and make purposeful language choices.

We are committed to supporting all learners. Scaffolds, modelling, and structured oracy are used to ensure pupils with SEND or EAL access and succeed in writing. At Rack House, we believe writing empowers children to shape their thinking, identity, and contribution to society- and we teach it as such.

Spelling in Key Stage Two

At Rack House Primary School, spelling in Key Stage 2 is taught through a structured and consistent approach that develops automaticity, fluency, and confidence in pupils’ writing. We follow the EdShed Spelling Scheme, a research-informed programme designed to embed both phonological and morphological spelling knowledge through explicit instruction, meaningful practice, and ongoing retrieval.

Each Friday morning, all pupils across Key Stage 2 participate in a structured spelling session where they are tested on their current spelling pattern and introduced to a new spelling rule or focus. This routine supports cumulative learning and retrieval practice, ensuring that pupils retain and apply spelling strategies over time.

The EdShed scheme builds systematically on the foundations of phonics, moving beyond simple sound- letter correspondences to explore prefixes, suffixes, root words, etymology, and spelling conventions. Weekly units focus on spelling rules and patterns, incorporating engaging activities, interactive games, and applied tasks that reinforce knowledge in multiple contexts. This approach enables children to move from encoding familiar words to spelling increasingly complex and topic-specific vocabulary.

In line with our writing curriculum, spelling is not taught in isolation. Children are taught how to use spelling knowledge as a tool to improve the accuracy and clarity of their writing. Spelling errors are addressed through modelling, feedback, and discussion of tricky word parts, common misconceptions, and effective strategies for learning spellings.

Our approach is inclusive and responsive. For children who are not yet fluent decoders, including those with gaps in phonics, we continue targeted phonics teaching alongside spelling instruction. This ensures a smooth transition from phonics to spelling, particularly in Year 2, through the Bridge to Spelling programme. This sequence consolidates Phase 5 phonics and builds confidence with applying spelling rules in writing.

By combining explicit instruction, consistent routines, and adaptive support, spelling instruction at Rack House enables all pupils- including those with SEND or EAL- to develop the independence and confidence needed to become accurate, fluent writers.

Handwriting in Key Stage Two

At Rack House Primary School, handwriting remains a valued and explicitly taught skill throughout Key Stage 2. We use the Letter-join handwriting scheme to ensure consistent, progressive development of fluent, legible, and joined handwriting. Every Friday morning, children across the key stage take part in a dedicated handwriting session, ensuring that regular practice is embedded in our weekly routine.

The Letter-join programme supports children in refining their cursive handwriting through direct modelling, guided repetition, and independent application. Lessons follow a clear sequence- typically involving demonstration, tracing, and freehand writing- enabling children to revisit key joins, maintain consistency in size and spacing, and develop speed and stamina. This focus on transcriptional fluency is vital as pupils are expected to write increasingly extended and complex texts.

Teachers model expectations and provide scaffolds, such as lined templates and targeted feedback, to support accuracy and presentation. Handwriting lessons also reinforce pride in written work and the importance of clear communication across all subjects.

By Year 6, pupils are expected to write with fluency and automaticity, enabling them to focus fully on composition and content. Our structured, consistent approach to handwriting ensures that all children- including those with additional needs- have the opportunity to develop a confident, efficient handwriting style that supports their wider literacy success.