At Waterloo Primary Academy, our children are WRITERS.

At Waterloo Primary Academy, we believe writing gives children a voice. Through writing, children communicate ideas, express themselves creatively, persuade, explain, question and influence the world around them.

Our ambition is that every child leaves Waterloo as a confident, articulate and independent writer, equipped with the knowledge, vocabulary and skills needed to succeed beyond primary school.

Writing sits at the heart of our curriculum because we know that children who write well are better able to think deeply, communicate effectively and apply their learning across all subjects. Through explicit teaching, purposeful practice and carefully sequenced learning, pupils develop confidence, stamina and pride in their writing.

We do not simply teach children how to write; we teach them how to craft, refine and communicate meaning with purpose.

Early Writing: Building Writers from the Very Beginning

Writing begins long before children hold a pencil.

In Early Years, pupils develop the foundations for writing through CUSP Early Foundations, where communication, language and storytelling are central. Children encounter ambitious texts, engage in structured story time and develop vocabulary through purposeful talk and play.

Through speaking, listening, oral rehearsal and storytelling, children learn to communicate ideas before recording them. Opportunities for mark making, fine motor development and purposeful writing experiences help children understand that writing carries meaning.

Our carefully planned provision ensures children begin to see themselves as communicators from the very start.

Handwriting: Developing Fluency, Automaticity and Pride

At Waterloo, we believe fluent handwriting supports fluent thinking.

Handwriting is taught explicitly and progressively through Letter-join, our whole-school handwriting programme. This provides a consistent approach from Early Years to Year 6, ensuring pupils develop secure letter formation before progressing towards joined, fluent and increasingly automatic handwriting.

In Early Years and Key Stage 1, handwriting is taught discretely alongside, but separate from, phonics instruction, allowing pupils to secure correct formation and build automaticity early.

As pupils progress through school, expectations increase so transcription becomes increasingly automatic, enabling greater cognitive attention to be directed towards composition and authorial choices.

We expect pupils to take pride in presentation because presentation reflects care, effort and respect for learning.

Writing at Waterloo: A Carefully Sequenced Curriculum

Writing is taught through CUSP Writing, a curriculum deliberately designed to build secure knowledge, revisit concepts and develop increasingly independent writers over time.

Pupils learn to write through carefully sequenced progression which develops:

• vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and spelling (VGPS)
• handwriting and transcription
• sentence construction and fluency
• composition and authorial choices
• editing and improvement
• writing processes and independence
• purpose, audience and effect

Writing is not viewed as a set of isolated skills. Instead, knowledge is built cumulatively and revisited so learning becomes secure and transferable.

Reduce and Revisit: Learning that Lasts

CUSP Writing is built upon a Reduce and Revisit approach.

Rather than teaching many genres superficially, pupils revisit fewer concepts repeatedly, enabling increasing mastery over time.

Writing units are organised through Block A and Block B sequences:

Block A introduces concepts through explicit teaching, modelling and scaffolded practice.

Block B revisits prior learning, requiring pupils to apply knowledge more independently and with greater sophistication.

This deliberate revisiting strengthens long-term memory, secures understanding and supports increasingly ambitious writing outcomes. By Upper Key Stage 2, pupils confidently produce more formal and academic texts, preparing them for future learning.

High-Quality Models: Learning from Expert Writers

High-quality model texts sit at the heart of our writing curriculum.

Before writing independently, pupils are immersed in ambitious examples and explicitly taught how authors create effect. Teachers carefully deconstruct texts, drawing attention to structure, grammar, vocabulary and authorial choices.

Children learn to identify:

• purpose
• audience
• language choices
• text structures
• grammatical concepts in context

We strongly believe children should talk the text before they write the text, enabling them to rehearse ideas and develop confidence before recording.

From Sentence Mastery to Extended Writing

Writing develops progressively.

Concepts are first taught at sentence level before being applied within extended outcomes. Pupils move increasingly independently through the writing process:

Teach → Practise → Apply → Edit → Improve → Revisit

Children learn to:

• plan
• draft
• review
• proofread
• edit for accuracy
• edit for meaning
• edit for impact

Editing is explicitly taught because strong writing develops through refinement.

Vocabulary, Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (VGPS)

Vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and spelling are taught progressively through the CUSP VGPS programme of study, ensuring pupils revisit and deepen understanding across school.

Children move from simple sentence construction and punctuation in Key Stage 1 towards increasingly sophisticated grammatical concepts including cohesion, modal verbs, relative clauses, passive voice and formal register by Upper Key Stage 2.

This progression enables pupils to understand not only what grammatical features are, but why writers use them and how they shape meaning.

Each year group has clear Writing Indicators, supporting assessment and identifying next steps whilst ensuring expectations remain ambitious.

Spelling: Building Knowledge and Independence

Spelling is taught through CUSP Spelling, moving beyond memorising rules.

Children explore spelling patterns, morphology and etymology, helping them understand relationships between words and apply knowledge confidently within independent writing.

Concepts are revisited systematically so pupils become increasingly thoughtful and independent spellers.

Feedback, Editing and Improvement: Developing Reflective Writers

At Waterloo, writing is never viewed as complete after a first attempt.

Feedback combines in-the-moment teaching, enabling misconceptions to be addressed immediately, alongside coded marking systems which support pupils in understanding precisely how to improve.

Children revisit writing using purple polishing pens, responding to feedback and improving accuracy, clarity and authorial impact.

Ingredients for success (success criteria) support pupils in evaluating their own work and developing increasing independence as reflective writers.

Adaptive Practice: Ambition for Every Writer

At Waterloo, we believe adaptation should increase access without reducing challenge - our ambition remains the same for all pupils: access to rich vocabulary, ambitious model texts and high-quality writing experiences. Scaffolding is therefore used to remove barriers whilst ensuring children remain immersed in the same curriculum as their peers.

Guided by the CUSP Writing Scaffolding Toolkit, teachers plan carefully for individual need, recognising that successful adaptation is responsive rather than fixed. Strategies are selected purposefully and adjusted over time.

Support may include:

• oral rehearsal before writing, enabling pupils to confidently say sentences before recording them
• shared writing and guided composition, where teachers explicitly model thinking, sentence construction and authorial choices
• additional modelling and worked examples, providing repeated opportunities to secure understanding before independence develops
• writing frames and sentence structures, supporting composition whilst reducing cognitive overload
• focused vocabulary prompts and word banks, helping pupils apply ambitious language precisely
• writing partial texts, allowing pupils to achieve excellence in smaller sections before progressing towards extended composition
• digital accessibility tools, including dictation and supportive technology where appropriate

Teachers continually adjust and gradually remove scaffolds as pupils gain confidence and fluency, ensuring support builds independence rather than reliance. The aim is not to simplify writing, but to enable every child to experience success within an ambitious curriculum.

We believe all children can become successful writers.

Assessment and Moderation: Ensuring Accuracy and Ambition

Assessment in Writing is continuous and purposeful.

Teachers use:

• daily formative assessment
• Writing Indicators
• independent writing outcomes
• editing evidence
• pupil book study and pupil voice
• extended composition outcomes

Writing standards are strengthened through regular internal moderation alongside cross-school moderation with local partners, ensuring judgements remain accurate, expectations remain ambitious and teaching remains consistent.

Our Writing Vision

At Waterloo Primary Academy, our children become writers who:

• communicate clearly
• write purposefully
• edit thoughtfully
• think deeply
• use their voices confidently

Because when children become writers, they gain the power to influence, create and succeed.