At Smithdown, we believe that all children can achieve success in writing when they are given:
Purpose – real reasons to write that inspire creativity and ownership.
Audience – opportunities to share writing and celebrate achievement.
Modelled excellence – exposure to high-quality writing from a diverse range of authors.
Feedback and reflection – regular opportunities to edit, improve and take pride in their work.
Children learn to plan, draft, revise and publish their writing, developing the skills to write effectively for a variety of forms, purposes and audiences.
Our writing curriculum is closely linked to our reading provision.
Strong reading skills and a love of books are the foundation of great writing. Children draw on vocabulary, structure and ideas from the texts they read to shape their own compositions.
Early writing development is supported through systematic phonics (Read Write Inc.) and the teaching of handwriting, spelling and vocabulary. As pupils move through school, they continue to refine their skills in grammar and composition through explicit teaching and rich, text-based experiences.
For more details about our early reading and phonics provision, please visit our Reading and Phonics page.
We celebrate writing across the curriculum through:
Displays that showcase pupil work and inspire pride.
Shared writing and author days that promote creativity.
Opportunities for children to publish and perform their writing for real audiences.
Whole-school events such as World Book Day, linking reading and writing together.
We want every child to see themselves as a writer — confident, capable and creative.
By the time children leave Smithdown Primary School, they:
Write fluently and accurately for a range of purposes and audiences.
Use grammar, punctuation and vocabulary effectively to enhance meaning.
Can plan, draft, edit and evaluate their writing independently.
Enjoy writing and take pride in their achievements.
View themselves as authors — confident in their ability to communicate ideas with imagination and purpose.
Our pupils grow as articulate, thoughtful and inspired writers who truly live our school motto: Together We Grow.
Please see the documents below for details of the texts and genres taught in each year group. These should be read alongside our Curriculum Overviews, as the order of units may change throughout the year to meet the needs of our pupils. Our writing curriculum is continually evolving to reflect our children’s interests and experiences.
Reception Overview for reading and writing Year 1 Overview for reading and writing
Year 2 Overview for reading and writing Year 3 Overview for reading and writing
Year 4 Overview for reading and writing Year 5 Overview for reading and writing
Year 6 Overview for reading and writing
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Year 6 spent some time yesterday finding out what a dual narrative is: we read an example and identified language and organisational features of the text, We then used our oracy skills to hot seat characters to gain a deeper understanding of emotions, actions and motivation. During our role on the wall work, we came up with some truly mind-blowing words!
Year 6 have thoroughly enjoyed this writing activity linked to Hansel and Gretel. We wrote a persuasive letter / a letter of support telling our friends Hansel and Gretel reasons why they should not go into the old woman’s cottage.
We are reading Into the Forest by Anthony Browne. The children are enjoying looking at his fantastic illustrations and seeing what they can spot. The pictures tell the story and keep us guessing about what happens next.
We have used today to compile a list of words that personify the sun – both human actions and emotions. We started constructing sentences with these words so we were ready for our next lesson.
We have written scripts for two characters in our book. We have used our inference skills to create a conversation that might have happened between them. Then we had some children perform their scripts to the class.
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To think about those who have lost their lives, we created some rhyming poetry. We based our poems on poppy fields, just like our art work.
Year 6 really enjoyed writing in the role of a character today, we could use some some words we would never normally say as they are not polite! Writing is based on the woodcutter’s wife’s reaction to the children finding their way home after her husband took them deep into the forest to lose them! She is not a happy lady!
Starting our new book, we met a character that loves the sun light stroking her skin as she dances. We used this image to create our own to show how the sun makes the girl feel.
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We are planning our instructions for how the Ancient Egyptians would have mummified a body to preserve it.
We worked so hard to create a kenning poem. We thought about what we know about Egg Box Dragon and used our knowledge of the suffix -er too. I am very proud of you all, good job!
Year 2 had a lovely afternoon creating a Kenning poem using the suffix er.
Year 6 have been taking on the role of Rose Blanche in English and have written a diary extract from her point of view.
We have had a wonderful start to the school year. It is lovely to see the children working hard and helping each other. We have also used our home languages to help our friends who are new to English.
We looked at prepositions today, focusing what we could change in our sentence accuracy. Some great examples!
We have been exploring our new character’s feelings and how they have changed through the book. Marcy started off excited for an adventure but quickly changed to fear and worry when it went dark and she reached the cave.
Year 6 have been writing in role this week and today they took on the role of a friend, giving advice to Rose Blanche after she told us what she had seen in the forest.
Today, we learned about the four layers of the Amazon Rainforest: the emergent layer, the canopy, the understory and the forest floor. These children worked very hard and produced wonderful work. Well done!
In English, we read the story Leon and the Place Between by Grahame Baker-Smith. One of our activities was to create a poster for the circus.
This hard-working boy has been practising his handwriting. He has made big improvements and is determined to get even better. Well done!
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This boy created sentences about the story The Emperor’s New Clothes. A substitution table helped provide support to write different types of sentences. This story contains themes such as vanity and greed as well as humour. We’ve enjoyed reading it together.
We have been reading the story of Rumpelstiltskin. It is an old German fairy tale that was written many years ago. These children have worked so hard with their writing. I have been very impressed.
This morning we focused on synonyms for the 6 words we have been looking at in Jemmy Button – voyage, magnificent, civilised, year, gazed and savages. We then recorded the best alternative words to use in our future work.
We took on the role of one of the characters in the short story we are currently reading: Mad Miss Marney. We assumed the role of Kate after her first visit to Mad Miss Marney’s house.
After completing a narrative, we have now written newspaper reports based on events within the short animation we based our narrative on: Francis.
We worked hard to plan and write a non-chronological report. We worked in groups to write a specific paragraph.
These children have worked so hard today on their independent writing. Well done!
We have been intrigued learning about Miep Gies and the role she played in helping to hide eight Jewish people in an annexe in Amsterdam during World War II but perhaps more importantly, how she was the one who found and kept safe Anne Frank’s diary.
Reaching the end of our unit, we learnt how the voting situation changed for women. Those courageous ladies achieved their aim and helped shape society today.
Working together to gather ideas before planning our own independent write, based on our novel Pea Boy. ✍️📖
We discovered some clues to our new story today! We made predictions and discussed if the clues reminded us of any other stories too.
Before we begin writing our own diary extracts, we read and annotated a model text for language and organisational features.
We used role play to decide if the witch from our class text should give back the stolen happy endings. We thought of lots of reasons for and against.
This week, the children have loved writing Christmas Card inserts to their families. They enjoyed practicing their early writing skills using the knowledge they have gained. This afternoon, they are excited to begin designing their cards…I am excited to see their creativity!
Today in our art lesson we looked at different examples of Arabic calligraphy and have had a go at our own.
Today we looked at different pictures of artefacts in museums around the world and how they were used during the transatlantic slave trade. We discussed the life of an enslaved person and the hardships they faced.
We really enjoyed writing these dual narratives in Year 6, we used two characters from the book we read together in lessons. We hope you enjoy reading them.
For our PSHE lesson we are celebrating differences. In previous weeks we have spoken about racism, bullying and rumours and now we are researching a range of countries and what their culture looks like.
Some incredible examples of extra work done at home. I have loved seeing how passionate we are about negative numbers, Olaudah Equiano and Roman numeral – keep it up, we love proudly displaying your work!
This week we are writing our own twisted tale narrative. We spent this morning exploring what a good one looks like, locating features and writing our own alternative ending.
We have just started work on writing our own dual narratives, based on the characters and events in Neil Gaiman’s Hansel and Gretel. Such powerful openings! We can’t wait to get writing more, they will be incredible to read.
Year 4 had a fun creative morning today. They loved playing the witch and Jub. We also used macaroni to add inverted commas into our speech that we had acted out. 
Year 4 had a fun morning creating speech and acting it out. We loved being the villainous witch and sweet, little Jub. We used macaroni to add inverted commas to our speech.
In Science, Year 6 have been learning about Charles Darwin as part of their ‘Evolution and Inheritance’ unit. Look at this incredible writing they have produced!
After learning about renewable energy sources, we have just begun to produce our own persuasive / information leaflets about solar power.
Author of ‘The late crew’ Rob Ferguson came to visit our school today. Some of us were so excited to even get our books signed by a real life author! We even designed our own alien that we could use in our stories. 
We are simply blown away by the writing we have recently produced. Our Year 6 classes are so invested in world issues – saving habitats and animals in particular. Have a read of some of the letters we wrote to the Rwandan Government, asking them to help protect the magnificent mountain gorillas 🦍
In Geography, we have been finding out about renewable energy sources: why they are needed alongwith the advantages and disadvantages of each.
I used fronted adverbials, conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions and personification. ⭐️🥳
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We simply had to share a few more pieces of work as we think they are truly fantastic! Detailed information which is extremely well presented. Great work Year 6!
After researching mountain gorillas and adaptions of animals, we have just begun to write our own explanation texts. Keep an eye out for the finished pieces.
In Year 6 today, we combined our learning from Geography and English by using our computer skills to present the information we have discovered into Google Sites to create our own web pages.
Year 3 had a great start to their first shared write of the year. We have been learning about imperative verbs, rhetorical questions, adverbs and how instructions are laid out. We put all the new skills we have been learning to the test and used them to create a set of instructions about how to be a mischievous child, based on our reading book ‘Seen and Not Heard’
Parents watch out! Your children came up with some very interesting ideas!
Anna and Crocodile asked us for our help today. We thought about how to make a sandwich, created some plans, made some sandwiches and of course had to taste test them! Yum yum!
Anna and Crocodile are trying to make a sandwich. We wrote our first set of instructions and then made a sandwich to check we had included all the steps. We learned that a set of instructions needs a ‘What you need’ list and a Method.
We went on a noun hunt and then acted out verbs to help us to identify the difference between the two.
Today we made our own maps in preparation for our instruction texts. We had to think carefully about where the gold was hidden and then give our partner instructions to find it.
We retold the story in teams and performed the story to our friends.
This morning we have had lots of fun playing in our Asda supermarket. We have been writing shopping lists and paying for our food with money.
We have thoroughly enjoyed reading Neil Gaiman’s version of Hansel and Gretel, so much so, it led us to writing our own dual narratives. We are so proud of the writing we have produced.
We read some accounts of evacuation during WW2, comparing content and explaining what information and evidence each source provided.
We have printed trains with blocks and made marks to represent train track, trains and signals.
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We have created some beautiful poems after reading Flanders Fields and used watercolours/charcoal/pencils to create some poppy artwork to mark Remembrance Day.
How AMAZING is this piece of work informing us about the consequences of palm oil! ? So informative and so incredibly well presented. #smithdowngeog #smithdownwriters
This morning we started to research @maejemison and tomorrow we will start our biographies of her life! #smithdownwriters
Thanks to all parents for coming along to session 4 of our parental literacy workshop which focused on writing.Please join us on Wednesday 22nd October for our final literacy workshop. The time will be 2.15-3pm. Many thanks.
