English at Miers Court
At Miers Court Primary School, English lies at the heart of learning and is taught through a rich, purposeful and meaningful curriculum that inspires success for every child. Our English curriculum is aspirational, encouraging pupils to see themselves as confident readers, writers and speakers, while nurturing self-belief in their own ideas and voices. Through a strong sense of togetherness, children learn to share, discuss and develop their thinking, building communication skills that support them across the wider curriculum.
Teaching is carefully structured and well sequenced so that skills are introduced, revisited and applied in meaningful contexts. This approach enables children to understand not just what they are writing, but the process of being a writer — from generating ideas to refining and presenting their work. By embedding skill teaching within engaging texts and real purposes, pupils develop resilience, learning to edit, improve and persevere with pride. Our English curriculum empowers children to grow as thoughtful, capable communicators who are prepared for the next stage of their learning journey.
Transcriptional Skills
In our school, transcription - the essential skills of handwriting and spelling - is taught from the very start of a child’s school journey and is a core part of learning to write effectively. In accordance with the Department for Education’s new writing framework, children begin handwriting and spelling instruction in Reception, ensuring these skills become automatic so that pupils can focus more on expressing their ideas in writing as they progress.
Transcription lessons are carefully sequenced and explicit, with teachers modelling clear letter formation and accurate spelling. Regular practice and high-quality feedback help children build fluency, accuracy and automaticity in these skills. The goal is for handwriting and spelling to become second nature, freeing up working memory so that children can concentrate on communicating richer ideas and developing as confident writers.
Handwriting is taught systematically with consistent expectations as pupils move through the school, and spelling instruction is integrated with phonics and word-level study so that children learn how sounds are represented in writing and how to apply these in their own work. This structured approach to transcription underpins our wider writing programme and supports pupils to become confident, fluent and independent writers.
Audience and Purpose
Each year group has a selection of core quality texts which they use as the foundation for the children’s writing experiences. These texts are linked to the different themes and geographical areas covered in each year group. Each time the children start a unit of English work, the audience and purpose is introduced and remains a central part of the subsequent teaching and thinking, so that the children are positioned as active authors from the offset.
Composition
We are working hard to ensure that all children have the compositional skills necessary to be confident and engaging writers. Composition is about helping children effectively express and organise their ideas in writing, ensuring they can communicate clearly for different audiences and purposes. At the heart of our approach is the understanding that writing is more than putting words on a page - it’s about articulating meaning, structuring thoughts and shaping language thoughtfully so that every piece of writing has purpose and impact.
We teach composition through a carefully sequenced process that supports learners from early spoken expression to longer, coherent texts. Children begin by composing orally — saying what they want to write — and gradually learn to plan, draft, revise, edit and share their work as part of a meaningful writing journey. This ensures that pupils are supported to organise ideas logically, choose vocabulary for effect, and shape sentences and paragraphs with awareness of audience and purpose.
Our approach emphasises sentence mastery and structure: since all writing is built from sentences, we explicitly teach children how to construct and link sentences with control and clarity before moving to extended writing. Teachers model effective sentence use and guide pupils in applying these skills in context, helping children to internalise the craft of writing as they progress.
Throughout, children receive regular, constructive feedback that helps them improve their writing and build their confidence. Composition lessons are purposeful and meaningful, ensuring that every learner develops the skills to articulate ideas effectively and become confident, independent writers.