Writing

At Holy Trinity, we believe that every child is a writer. We are passionate about developing every child’s knowledge, motivation and confidence in their writing. We have chosen HFL Education’s ESSENTIALWRITING as the basis of our writing curriculum for years 1-6. This is an ambitious and progressive writing scheme which provides our children with opportunities and tools to write for a range of specific purposes and authentic audiences. As a result, our children feel inspired and ready to write high-quality outcomes within the classroom but also have the knowledge, strategies and confidence to choose to write in their own lives.

Writing Purpose	Years 1 & 2	Years 3 & 4	Years 5 & 6
To entertain	ü	ü	ü
To inform	ü	ü	ü
To persuade		ü	ü
To discuss			ü

Each year group has 13-16 teaching units, all of which use diverse and high-quality literature as good examples of writing craft and to help to motivate or inspire children to write.

ESSENTIALWRITING is fully aligned with the National Curriculum for English including writing composition, vocabulary, grammar & punctuation for each year group. Each writing unit is progressively structured and centred around the different writing purposes: to entertain; to inform; to persuade and to discuss. The writing purposes are also progressively sequenced across the school (see table, left).

	Write to entertain	Write to inform	Write to persuade	Write to discuss
Year 1	Storyboard Short picture book Fairy tale /Traditional tale Short story Poetry	Lists, labels and captions Instructions Recipe Rules Letter Recount Explanation
Year 2	Picture book Short story Narrative based on real experiences Fairy tale/ Traditional tale Poetry	Instructions Letter Postcard Recount (inc. real events) Simple non-chronological report
Year 3	Narrative Setting-focused short story Personal narrative (memoir) Fable Poetry	Non-chronological report Instructions	Letter Speech
Year 4	Graphic novel Character-driven short story Poetry	Explanation Newspaper report/ Recount Non-chronological report	Letter Speech Travel leaflet
Year 5	Descriptive recount Narrative (suspense & atmosphere) Short story Poetry	Non-chronological report Biography Explanation	Advertising campaign Letters	Reviews
Year 6	Narrative Scene incorporating dialogue Fairy tale Poetry	Non-chronological report Biography	Speech Advocacy campaign	Balanced argument Blogs

Follow this link to access the statutory content of the English objectives within the National Curriculum: English programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2 (publishing.service.gov.uk). The information below outlines our approach to the teaching of writing in each year group, which encompasses the teaching of the statutory content as outlined within the National Curriculum for writing for key stage one (Year 1 - Year 2), lower key stage two (Year 3 – 4) and upper key stage two (Year 5 – Year 6). For this academic year, ESSENTIALWRITING is implemented in Y1 - Y6 but builds on the foundational learning from the EYFS.

Alongside ESSENTIALWRITING, at Holy Trinity, we have adopted Spelling shed as the basis of our spelling curriculum. ESSENTIALWRITING supports our children to apply this learning in context and build their spelling confidence. Writing models reflect age-appropriate spelling objectives and children are taught how to monitor the accuracy of their writing. Handwriting is also taught. We have adopted letter join to ensure that every child gains sufficient fluency for writing, with knowledge of accurate letter formation and how to join letters so that they can meet the National Curriculum expectations for each key stage.