Our English Curriculum at Garden City Academy
At Garden City Academy, we believe that every child can become a confident, skilled and independent writer. Our writing curriculum is carefully designed to develop children's knowledge, skills and creativity through a structured progression from the Early Years to Year 6.
In EYFS, writing begins with building strong foundations through the Reach2 Writing Curriculum. Children develop the essential skills needed for successful writing, including communication and language, vocabulary development, storytelling, mark-making, phonics and early sentence construction. Through meaningful experiences and high-quality texts, children learn that writing is a powerful tool for communication.
In Key Stage 1, children develop sentence-level mastery through the study of a rich core text. Each unit is built around carefully chosen literature that engages and inspires young writers. Weekly lessons focus on a specific aspect of sentence construction, enabling children to practise and apply new knowledge in a range of meaningful contexts. By securing the fundamentals of grammar and punctuation, children develop confidence and fluency as writers.
In Key Stage 2, writing is taught through our structured Three-Phase Writing Model, which moves children from understanding, to competence, and finally to independence. Each unit is centred around a high-quality model text and follows a clear progression:
Phase 1: Immersion and Analysis – Children explore and analyse model texts, considering how writers use structure, language and authorial choices to engage their audience and achieve a purpose.
Phase 2: Focused Teaching of Knowledge and Skills – Teachers provide explicit instruction, modelling and guided practice to develop the knowledge and skills needed for successful writing.
Phase 3: The Writing Process – Children plan, draft, edit, redraft and publish their writing, applying their learning independently to produce high-quality outcomes.
Across the school, our curriculum is both knowledge-rich and skill-based. Children are taught to think like writers, make deliberate authorial choices and understand the impact their writing has on the reader. Through consistent approaches, high expectations and carefully planned support, all pupils are empowered to succeed and leave our school as capable, reflective and enthusiastic writers.
This approach ensures that every writing unit not only produces a successful final piece but also develops the transferable writing knowledge and skills that children will carry with them throughout their education and beyond
