INTENT

At Meadowhead Juniors, our writing curriculum is designed with the Literacy Counts Ready Steady Write scheme at its core. Our intent is to create a community of confident, skilled writers who enjoy expressing their ideas and understand the impact of effective communication. The Ready Steady Write scheme supports an inclusive and aspirational curriculum that builds a strong foundation in vocabulary, grammar, and linguistic conventions. Through this structured, adapted, high-quality literacy program, we equip all pupils—regardless of their individual needs, abilities, or backgrounds—to write fluently and expressively, fostering a love of language and communication that will empower them within their communities and beyond.

Using Ready Steady Write, we engage pupils with rich, high-quality literature that inspires a love of writing. We help students to take pride in their work, adapt their style for different audiences, and develop the skills they need to write clearly, accurately, and purposefully.

IMPLEMENTATION

Through the Ready Steady Write scheme by Literacy Counts, we provide a cohesive, vocabulary-rich writing curriculum. This approach includes:

• Grammar and Sentence Work: Daily sentence accuracy sessions develop understanding and application of grammar and punctuation, using Ready Steady Write resources to ensure consistent, cross-curricular skills.
• Genre Exploration: Students study the structure and purpose of various genres, guided by the scheme to identify audience and form effectively.
• Planning, Drafting, and Revising: Pupils are taught to plan and organise ideas coherently, draft with intention, and revise purposefully, following Ready Steady Write techniques that ensure clarity and coherence.

Our teaching methods with Ready Steady Write include:

• Modelled Writing: Teachers use the scheme's structured examples to demonstrate writing, sharing high expectations and modelling the editing process daily.
• Shared Writing: Teachers guide students in collaborative writing exercises based on Ready Steady Write activities, giving students ownership of their shared work.
• Scaffolding: Ready Steady Write scaffolds support language acquisition and idea development, fostering independence.
• Editing Skills: Pupils learn editing techniques through the scheme’s structured sentence checkers and other editing resources.

IMPACT

With Ready Steady Write as our core scheme, Meadowhead Juniors fosters a community of enthusiastic writers who develop confidence, independence, and creativity. Quality-first teaching allows us to meet the needs of each pupil, encouraging progression and enabling all students to become motivated, skilful writers.

Assessment

Teachers use continuous formative assessment, drawing from Ready Steady Write activities and resources to monitor progress and tailor feedback. Daily sentence accuracy and termly writing moderation support consistent standards across the school, ensuring each child receives the appropriate challenge and support.

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds

At Meadowhead Junior School, we use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds to support pupils who continue to develop their phonics skills from their starting points in Meadowhead Infant School. 

Little Wandle Rapid Catch-up is a complete catch-up programme that mirrors the main phonics programme but has a faster pace. It has been created to help children catch up quickly.

The programme has been developed to ensure plenty of repeated practice in blending, word reading and spelling in each lesson, using a range of activities such as Change it, Match the words to the pictures and Mix it up. Children also need to learn the meaning of the words that they read, which is why we provide simple definitions or contextualising sentences for words. By the end of the programme children should be reading with enough fluency and accuracy to access the curriculum in class, and to read with enjoyment and understanding.

Our Love of Reading

At Meadowhead Juniors, we aim to foster a lifelong love of reading in all children. Alongside the structured teaching of phonics and comprehension, we prioritise reading for pleasure, understanding that it is one of the most significant predictors of a child’s future academic success and well-being. Our goal is for every pupil to experience the joy of reading and to develop a natural enthusiasm for exploring books across a variety of genres and styles.

Resources

Each classroom is equipped with a well-stocked library of engaging, age-appropriate books, allowing children the freedom to select and enjoy reading material that resonates with them. Pupils have opportunities throughout the year to participate in re-stocking their classroom libraries by suggesting new books, fostering a sense of ownership and excitement about their reading choices. Additionally, our Bases provide shared, inviting spaces filled with a wide selection of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry books that students can borrow.

Reading Bases

Our Reading Bases, a dedicated reading space open to children in each of the four year groups, offers children a cozy environment to immerse themselves in books, either by reading independently, being read to by a staff member, or selecting books to borrow. The Bases and reading areas are managed by each cohort, who encourage peers to explore and enjoy a wide variety of reading materials.

Dedicated Reading Time

Each class enjoys a carefully chosen half-termly book read aloud by the teacher. These selections are engaging, age-appropriate, and aim to spark interest in specific authors or genres.

By fostering a culture of reading for pleasure, Meadowhead Juniors supports pupils in developing a personal love for reading that extends beyond academic requirements. Regular exposure to books through classroom libraries, the Reading Events, and dedicated reading times cultivates confident, enthusiastic readers who are inspired to explore new ideas and stories.