Enabling every pupil to become happy, secure, enthusiastic life-long learners who can experience personal success.
At Hilltop Primary Academy, our writing curriculum is designed to develop confident, fluent and purposeful writers who understand the power of language. We believe that every child can succeed as a writer when provided with explicit teaching, clear structures, rich vocabulary and meaningful reasons to write. Writing at Hilltop is driven by purpose: every unit is shaped by the question, Who are we writing for, and why? Each outcome is defined by a clear ‘so that’ statement, ensuring audience and intent sit at the heart of composition.
Our curriculum is built upon a consistent, whole-school sequence from immersion to publication. Through carefully structured phases—immersion, spelling, skills development, model analysis, planning, drafting, editing and publishing—children gradually move from supported practice to independent control. This repeatable structure builds confidence, automaticity and creativity, enabling them to focus on crafting impactful writing.
We are committed to securing both transcriptional fluency and high-quality composition. In Key Stage 1, writing is rooted in strong phonics teaching through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, alongside rich oracy, shared writing and sentence modelling. Children orally rehearse ideas, apply grapheme–phoneme correspondences and build secure foundations in spelling, grammar and sentence construction.
In Key Stage 2, children deepen their understanding of structure, grammar and authorial choice. Through explicit modelling, grammar-linked dictation, vocabulary instruction and purposeful practice, they learn how to make deliberate decisions about language, cohesion and tone. They analyse high-quality models, plan with clarity and refine their work through structured editing using purple pen responses.
Our writing curriculum reflects five key purposes: to narrate, describe, inform, persuade and discuss. Across the year, children encounter a broad range of genres and styles, carefully mapped to ensure progression in knowledge, vocabulary and structural complexity. Writing is linked meaningfully to the wider curriculum, allowing children to apply their skills in history, geography, science and beyond.
Inclusion is central to our approach. All children access the full writing curriculum, supported through scaffolds, visual prompts, structured talk and adult modelling where necessary. Support is carefully adapted and gradually withdrawn to promote independence without lowering ambition.
Through a structured, vocabulary-rich and purpose-driven approach, we ensure that every child at Hilltop not only learns to write—but begins to see themselves as an author.
Find out more about the national curriculum for English in key stages 1 and 2.
