Here at Smithdown Primary we aim to produce a lively and stimulating environment in which staff are committed to teaching individual, group and class activities which promote rich and appropriate speaking, listening, reading and writing experiences. Having previously been a ‘Power of Reading School’, we have adapted our reading and writing approaches to incorporate Talk for Writing principles along with Literacy Counts, creating an inspiring reading and writing curriculum.

We recognise that English is a core subject within the National Curriculum and essential for educational and social progress. Mastery over language empowers children to communicate creatively and imaginatively, as well as allowing them engagement with the world at large. Therefore we aim to establish a curriculum which provides the necessary meaningful opportunities to develop competence in all language areas.

Reading and phonics also support the development of our writing curriculum.  Please see our Reading and Phonics page for more information.

The documents below give you more information about the texts and genres that your child will be covering.  Please note that this document should be read in conjunction with our curriculum overviews as the order of the units may change throughout the year.

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

Read to Write empowers teachers to provide high-quality teaching of writing through high-quality literature. These detailed units of work centre on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts, with a wealth of writing opportunities within and across the curriculum and they also signpost wider curriculum enrichments.

These units provide:

  • Clear sequential Episodes of Learning
  • Model Texts linked to writing outcomes within the unit
  • Vocabulary learning and contextualised spelling, grammar and punctuation
  • Wider reading for the wider curriculum
  • Curriculum Enrichments
  • A wealth of resources
  • Explicit links to the national curriculum

Read to Write is evidence-based teaching of writing. These units have been carefully mapped out so the entire statutory curriculum for English is covered for each year group, supporting our school to build a rich curriculum.

Primary National Curriculum for English

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Writing Chatter

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Asda

27-02-2024

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.


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Hansel and Gretel mural display completed.

06-02-2024

How fabulous is this wall? !

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Hansel and Gretel: Dual Narratives

30-11-2023

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.

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Using historical sources

24-11-2023

We read some accounts of evacuation during WW2, comparing content and explaining what information and evidence each source provided.

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Today we have read I Like Trains!

20-11-2023

We have printed trains with blocks and made marks to represent train track, trains and signals.

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We have been busy learning about Diwali the festival of light. We have moulded dough into Diya lamps. Made marks to create Rangoli patterns and wrote our names in our cards we have decorated.

13-11-2023

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Remembrance Day

10-11-2023

We have created some beautiful poems after reading Flanders Fields and used watercolours/charcoal/pencils to create some poppy artwork to mark Remembrance Day.

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So informative and so incredibly well presented

19-10-2023

How AMAZING is this piece of work informing us about the consequences of palm oil! 🦧 So informative and so incredibly well presented. #smithdowngeog #smithdownwriters

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This is a test post for the Writing category

18-10-2023

This morning we started to research @maejemison and tomorrow we will start our biographies of her life! #smithdownwriters

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