At Carr Hill Primary & Nursery School, we believe that literacy is the foundation upon which all future learning is built. Reading, writing, speaking and listening underpin success across the curriculum and empower children to become confident, knowledgeable and independent learners. Our ambition is that every child leaves Carr Hill as a fluent reader, an articulate communicator and a purposeful writer, equipped with the knowledge, vocabulary and confidence to flourish in secondary education and beyond. 
 
Our curriculum is ambitious for every child. We believe that all pupils can become successful readers and writers when learning is carefully sequenced, explicitly taught and supported through high-quality first teaching. Through adaptive teaching, carefully planned scaffolding and timely intervention, pupils are supported to achieve success whilst maintaining high expectations. 

Writing – Key Stage One & Two 

We follow a Mastery approach to English through the programme ‘Pathways to Write.’ Units of work are delivered using high-quality texts and children are given varied opportunities for writing. Skills are built up through repetition within the units, and children apply these skills in the writing activities provided.    

Texts have been selected for their own literary merit, exposing pupils to ambitious vocabulary, rich language and increasingly sophisticated sentence structures. Every unit provides a meaningful purpose and audience, enabling pupils to understand not only how authors write, but why they make particular language choices.

United Learning Curriculum - Reception Overview

Pathways to Write - KS1 Overview

Pathways to Write  - KS2 - Overview

Pathways to Write - Overview of Objectives Y1-Y6

Spelling – Key Stage Two 

We follow a mastery approach to the teaching of spelling through the programme ‘Pathways to Spell’. It is a programme designed to deliver the statutory content of the Primary National Curriculum for spelling in key stages 1 and 2. Through weekly teaching of spelling objectives and development of a whole school approach to word transcription, vocabulary development and proof-reading, the programme aims to develop children as proficient spellers.

Pathways to Spell - Spelling Objectives KS2

Handwriting – EYFS, Key  Stage One & Key Stage Two 

We are very proud of our pupils’ handwriting and take particular care with our handwriting style.  
In line with the Writing Framework 2025, handwriting is taught explicitly and regularly across the school beginning in reception, in addition to writing in phonics lessons. We use Letter-join’s whole school handwriting scheme, which enables us to meet National Curriculum requirements through a structured teaching programme.  

For further information please see our Handwriting Guide for Parents/Carers