Skip to content ↓

Writing

At Homefield CE VC Primary, our Writing curriculum follows the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum in England.

In Key Stage 1 and 2, we teach Writing using the Unity Schools Partnership Curriculum for Literacy (CUSP). 

This is a highly ambitious, carefully considered curriculum that is firmly rooted in evidence-informed principles. It carefully maps out core content in Writing across the Primary years, ensuring that key learning is taught progressively, revisited, consolidated and embedded over time.  Where appropriate, the Writing curriculum links closely with the wider CUSP curriculum, ensuring that vital links are made between subjects; enhancing and deepening pupils’ learning experiences and improving conceptual fluency.

CUSP Writing

CUSP writing is a “reduce and revisit” model of writing where pupils draw on prior learning to focus on the “how” of writing. Each writing unit is expertly designed to allow for the explicit teaching, modelling and rehearsing of core knowledge and skills prior to pupils then applying these through extended writing. This includes the direct, explicit teaching of Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (GPS) in every writing lesson.

Implementation

Modules are deliberately sequenced for robust progression and allow teachers to focus on the explicit teaching of key skills and knowledge. Each genre is visited twice every year to allow for consolidation, deepening understanding and retrieval of grammar foci and text conventions. Furthermore, the same genres are revisited across key stages which allows pupils to deepen their understanding of key text conventions. This allows for learning, vocabulary and content to be cumulative; content is learned, retrieved and built upon.

Moreover, each writing unit in the CUSP curriculum is expertly designed to allow for the explicit teaching, modelling and rehearsing of core knowledge and skills prior to pupils then applying these through extended writing. This includes the direct, explicit teaching of Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (GPS) in every writing lesson.

Unit Sequence

Each unit follows the same process to ensure pupils can focus on the “what” of learning, rather than the “how”.

The units include:

1. Revisit of prior learning

2. Explicit vocabulary instruction (including morphology, etymology and meaning)

3. Worked examples of the key skills in the form of a model text

4. Explicit teaching of grammar which often includes “my turn, our turn, your turn” writing

5. Oral rehearsal

6. Planning, drafting, editing and polishing of independently written pieces

    

Long Term Writing Overview (sequenced)

 

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Year 1
  • CUSP Strong Start sentence composition
  • Character description A
  • Poems developing vocabulary A
  • Stories with familiar settings A
  • Instructional writing A
  • Shape poems and calligrams A
  • Shape poems and calligrams B
  • Recount from personal experience A
  • Informal letters A
  • Poetry on a (nature) theme B
  • Stories with familiar settings B
  • Recount from personal experience B
  • Informal letters B
  • Setting description B
  • Poetry on a (nature) theme B
  • Instructional writing B

Year 2
  • CUSP Strong Start sentence suite
  • Character descriptions A
  • Poems developing vocabulary A
  • Simple retelling of a narrative A
  • Formal invitations A
  • Stories from other cultures A
  • Poems on a (humorous) theme A
  • Non-chronological reports A
  • Formal invitations B
  • Stories from other cultures B
  • Recount from personal experience A
  • Non-chronological reports B
  • Simple retelling of a narrative B
  • Recount from personal experience B
  • Poems developing vocabulary B
  • Character descriptions B
  • Poems on a (humorous) theme B

Year 3
  • CUSP Strong Start sentence suite
  • Poems on a theme (emotions) A
  • First person narrative description A
  • Non-chronological reports A
  • Formal letters to complain A
  • Dialogue through narrative (historical stories) A
  • Performance poetry including those from other cultures A
  • Third person narrative (animal stories) A
  • Non-chronological reports B
  • Advanced instructional writing A
  • First person narrative description B
  • Performance poetry including those from other cultures B
  • Third person narrative (animal stories) B
  • Formal letters to complain B
  • Dialogue through narrative (historical stories) B
  • Poetry on a theme (emotions) B
  • Advanced instructional writing B

Year 4
  • CUSP Strong Start sentence suite
  • Poems which explore form A
  • Persuasive writing (adverts) A
  • First person diary entries (imaginative) A
  • Critical analysis of narrative poetry A
  • Third person adventure stories A
  • Newspaper reports A
  • Stories from other cultures A
  • Explanatory texts A
  • Third person adventure stories B
  • Poems which explore form B
  • Stories from other cultures B
  • First person diary entries (imaginative) B
  • Critical analysis of narrative poetry B
  • Newspaper reports B
  • Explanatory texts B

Year 5
  • Third person stories set in another culture A
  • Formal letter of application A
  • Poems that use word play A
  • Dialogue in narrative (first person myths and legends) A
  • Poems which explore form A
  • Balanced argument A
  • Third person stories set in another culture B
  • Formal letter of application B
  • Poems that use word play B
  • Playscripts (Shakespeare retelling) A
  • Biography A
  • Playscripts (Shakespeare retelling) B
  • Dialogue in narrative (first person myths and legends) B
  • Balanced argument B
  • Biography B
  • Poems which explore form B

 

Year 6
  • Autobiography A
  • Discursive writing and speeches A
  • Poems that create (war) images A
  • First person stories with a moral A
  • Shakespeare’s sonnets A
  • Explanatory texts A
  • Extended third person narrative A
  • Explanatory texts B
  • News reports A
  • Autobiography B
  • First person stories with a moral B
  • Extended third person narrative B
  • Poems that create images B
  • Discursive writing and speeches B
  • News reports B
  • Shakespeare’s sonnets B

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key                                                                                                                                                                                                     Block A (initial block for genre)                                                                                                                                               Block B (revisit of genre)  

Cookie Policy