Writing: effective teaching strategies (primary)

Improve writing outcomes in your school. Get ideas for high-quality teaching of writing at Key Stage (KS) 1 and 2. Find research-based example strategies, a teaching framework and primary school case studies to help you along your improvement journey.

Last reviewed on 13 July 2023
School types: AllSchool phases: PrimaryRef: 235
Contents
  1. Research-based writing strategies
  2. Consider commercial strategies
  3. Try something different
  4. Support your staff with training

Please note, any mention of commercial products in this article is not an endorsement by The Key.

If you're new to leading writing, don’t worry. This article will help you to understand the different approaches available to you to develop writing in your school. Also read about how to develop and embed a subject vision.

Key Stage 1: Teach strategies to help pupils successfully plan and monitor their own writing You’re probably doing this already.  Teach handwriting and spelling explicitly alongside these strategies. This means that once those elements are more automatic for pupils, they can focus on what they're writing. Introduce the following strategies with modelling and structured support, then reduce your input so pupils can work more independently. Pre-writing activities: Help pupils generate and organise ideas. These could be arranged visually using a planning tool. Read more about pre-writing activities on page 31 of the Improving Literacy in Key Stage