Learning to write is one of the most important things that your child will do at school. Almost all other areas of the curriculum are assessed through writing, so strong writing is one of the keys to academic success. Good writing also gives your child a voice to share their ideas with the world. We ensure all children experience writing through all forms of study.

Our curriculum encourages pupils to write and read for a purpose. Our literacy and phonics lessons underpin the development of the literacy skills that children require for life. Phonics is taught daily in Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage One. In Key Stage Two, there are daily opportunities for reading and writing through our literacy curriculum and in other curriculum areas.

At The Vale Academy, children learn to write within three key writing themes:

• Writing to inform
• Writing to persuade
• Writing to entertain

These themes are studied across the academy at the same time, enabling us to see progression in writing at all times.

Within these three writing themes, pupils will write a ‘Cold Write’ at the beginning of a unit of study, which is a fully-independent piece of writing to gauge prior attainment in that area and establish a starting point for writing. After a unit has been studied, pupils then write a ‘Hot Write’, which encompasses all of the skills for writing that the pupils have been studying within a writing unit. This happens twice every Half Term.