Intent

At our school, we are committed to developing confident, capable and enthusiastic writers. Through the Ready Steady Write programme, we provide a carefully structured and ambitious curriculum that ensures all children make strong progress in writing from EYFS to Year 6. Our aim is for every child to see themselves as an author, equipped with the skills, knowledge and confidence to write for a range of real purposes and audiences.

Implementation

Writing is taught through Ready Steady Write, a carefully sequenced programme built around high-quality, vocabulary-rich texts.

Each unit follows a clear and consistent learning journey:

Immerse → Analyse → Plan → Write

• Immerse – Children are fully engaged in a high-quality text, developing a deep understanding of content, themes and vocabulary.
• Analyse – They explore the features, structure and language choices used by the author.
• Plan – Children organise their ideas, drawing on sentence scaffolds, vocabulary banks and modelled writing.
• Write – They apply their learning independently to produce purposeful, extended pieces of writing.

Key Features of Our Approach

• Grammar in context – Grammar is explicitly taught and embedded within the writing process, ensuring children understand how language choices impact meaning.
• Ambitious vocabulary – Carefully selected vocabulary is taught, revisited and applied across writing.
• Daily sentence work – Regular practice ensures accuracy in punctuation, spelling and sentence construction.
• Purposeful outcomes – Children write for meaningful reasons linked to audience and purpose.
• Talk for writing – Oral rehearsal, discussion and language development underpin all writing.

Inclusion and Progression

Learning is carefully scaffolded to support all pupils, including those with SEND, while providing appropriate challenge for all learners. The clear progression of skills from EYFS through to Year 6 ensures that children build on prior knowledge and develop increasing independence and sophistication in their writing.

Impact

Through this structured and engaging approach, children:

• Develop as confident, fluent writers
• Use grammar accurately and effectively
• Apply ambitious vocabulary independently
• Write at length with stamina and control
• Understand how to adapt their writing for different audiences and purposes

Children take pride in their work and understand that writing is a powerful tool for communication and creativity.

Our outcomes in writing demonstrate strong progress, with pupils leaving Year 6 well prepared for the demands of the next stage in their education.

How knowledge and Skills Build Over Time

1. The Core Sequence: How Concepts Take Root

The programme uses rich, high-quality literature as a vehicle to show children exactly how skilled authors write. 

• Immerse: Children explore a core book through discussion, drama, and "book talk". This builds the deep background knowledge and oral vocabulary required before writing.
• Analyse: Pupils examine model texts  to deconstruct how successful authors make deliberate choices for different audiences and purposes.
• Plan & Write: Children organise their ideas and apply their learning through supported, shared, and independent writing

Enrichment and Wider Opportunities

Enriching Oracy & Drama

Immersive Experiences

Purposeful Publishing

Vocabulary Progression

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) & Key Stage 1 (KS1)

• Focus: Developing foundational story vocabulary and early connectives.
• Key Vocabulary: Story starters like "Once upon a time" and basic connectives like "and", "then", "soon", and "suddenly".
• Action: Daily sentence accuracy work focusing on word building. 

Lower Key Stage 2 (Years 3 & 4)

• Focus: Learning how words are related and building technical vocabulary for different genres.
• Key Concepts: Distinguishing between informal and formal speech vocabulary, using synonyms and antonyms, and building prefixes/suffixes.

Upper Key Stage 2 (Years 5 & 6)

• Focus: Expanding vocabulary for specific genres and cultivating a formal tone.
• Key Concepts: Mastering advanced root words, using a thesaurus, converting nouns to verbs, and selecting powerful vocabulary for atmospheric or persuasive writing.