At Delabole Primary School, we believe every child has something worth saying. 

Writing gives children a way to share their ideas with the world. It enables them to tell stories, explain what they know, capture their imagination, persuade others and communicate their thoughts with clarity and confidence. We want children to understand that the words they choose matter. 

Our aim is to nurture confident, capable and enthusiastic writers. Children learn the knowledge and skills needed to write accurately, but they also learn how to use those skills with increasing independence. They discover how vocabulary, sentence structure, grammar and punctuation can be deliberately chosen and crafted according to what they are writing, why they are writing and who will read it.

From Year 1, our writing curriculum is underpinned by Grammarsaurus and the Place Value of Punctuation and Grammar (PVPG) approach. Children build a secure understanding of how sentences work, learning the essential components of grammar and punctuation systematically. As they progress through the school, these foundations are revisited and developed so that children build an increasingly sophisticated toolkit for writing. Importantly, we want children to do more than know grammatical terms or use punctuation correctly. We want them to understand how the choices a writer makes can change the effect of their writing. 

Writing is also most powerful when children have something meaningful to write about. 

For this reason, our Grammarsaurus writing units are carefully mapped into the wider curriculum. Wherever meaningful, writing connects with each class's overarching enquiry or with learning in subjects such as science, history and geography. These connections are deliberate. Children build knowledge, explore ideas, discuss, read and investigate before drawing upon this learning in their writing. 

Alongside these units, children encounter beautiful, high-quality texts. Great books provide models of what language can achieve. Children explore rich vocabulary, interesting sentence structures and the techniques authors use to engage their readers, gradually learning to experiment with these choices in their own work. 

Throughout their journey at Delabole, children experience the full breadth of writing genres. They learn that successful writing is not about following one formula. It is about having the knowledge and tools to make the right choices for a particular purpose and audience. 

Every Writer Has To Start Somewhere: 

Our youngest children begin their journey as writers through Drawing Club. 

In Reception, carefully chosen books open the door to imagination, conversation, drawing and writing. A different focus each day provides opportunities for children to develop vocabulary, explore ideas, make marks and begin to put pencil to paper. Most importantly, children are encouraged to write when they are ready. 

We recognise drawing, storytelling, talking and mark-making as important parts of becoming a writer. As children's confidence grows, they begin to understand that the marks and words they put onto a page can carry meaning and communicate their ideas to someone else. These early experiences are about building something precious: the desire to write. 

We want that confidence and curiosity to stay with children as their writing becomes increasingly sophisticated throughout their time at Delabole. 

Our Aims for Writing: 

At Delabole Primary School, we want every child, whatever their starting point, to develop the knowledge, confidence and independence to see themselves as a writer. 

We want our children to: 

• write confidently and with purpose, knowing that their ideas and words matter; 

• write clearly and accurately for different audiences, purposes and genres; 

• build a secure writer's toolkit, using vocabulary, grammar and punctuation effectively; 

• develop a rich and ambitious vocabulary through books and learning across the curriculum; 

• understand that writing is a craft, learning to plan, compose, edit and improve; 

• become independent and resilient writers, making increasingly thoughtful choices; and 

• recognise the power of writing to tell stories, share knowledge, communicate ideas and make their voices heard.