At Bearnes Primary School, we use BookWrites to support our curriculum planning. As the BookWrites sequence develops, teachers adapt and refine their plans to ensure learning is closely matched to the needs of the children in their class. This approach allows teachers to quickly identify and address any gaps in understanding while ensuring that pupils continue to progress through the curriculum.
Children are regularly exposed to high-quality texts which are used as models for their own writing. Teachers carefully plan lessons to support pupils through a structured three-phase approacBe
| Before the unit starts | Cold Write | Cold writes take place at the start of every unit. These provide teachers with an opportunity to assess pupils’ current understanding and identify the key areas of focus for the upcoming teaching sequence. Teachers then use this information to plan targeted learning, including the development of grammar, handwriting, spelling and sentence structure. |
| Week 1-2 | Imitiate |
Children begin by becoming fully immersed in the model text through a range of engaging activities such as drama, short burst writing, discussion and creative tasks including art. In Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, pupils also learn texts through text mapping, helping them internalise the language, structure and patterns of effective writing. During this phase, children explore the text in detail, identifying and practising key sentence structures, grammar and punctuation, ambitious vocabulary, and the author’s techniques used to create particular effects. |
| Week 2-3 | Innovate | Teachers and pupils then work together to adapt the model text, applying the key learning from the earlier phase. Through modelled writing, teachers demonstrate how to write effectively and support pupils in creating a new shared version of the text. |
| Week 4 | Invent (Hot Write) | The last step, pupils apply everything they have learned across the sequence to write their own independent piece. |