At Heath Mount, we use the Heath Mount approach for teaching writing. This encompasses a three-stage pedagogy: ​‘Immersion’ (where pupils learn and internalise texts, to identify transferrable ideas and structures), ​‘Sentence Work’ (where pupils focus on developing their knowledge and skills of sentence structures), and ​‘Independent Writing’ (where pupils use the skills taught to create original texts independently). These tasks aim to improve writing ability by giving pupils an understanding of the structure and elements of written language.

There are four purposes to writing (to entertain, to inform, to persuade and to discuss). In Years 1 and 2, only two text types are focused upon. The number of text types studied however builds up over time (see below) and over the course of their time at our school, our pupils experience the full range of these. The content of writing lessons is nearly always linked to the topics that our pupils are studying in their history and geography lessons. This allows our pupils to develop further and to consolidate their 'topic' knowledge within these curriculum areas. 

 During the week, writing is taught though focused lessons on the development of handwriting (using the Letter Join Scheme); spelling (using lessons from Spelling Shed); vocabulary, grammar and punctuation (VGP) and composition (covering the writing elements identified in the previous paragraph) Please see the structure of a week below.

At Heath Mount, we have reduced the number of writing objectives each year group has to complete in a year to approximately 20. These are taught and embedded throughout the year. The expectation is that 100% of pupils, use these 100% accurately, 100% of the time by the end of the year. This is achieved through precise teaching, repeated practise of the skills and effective feedback.