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 19 February 2025
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: Introduce strategies to help pupils successfully plan, monitor and improve their own writing Teach handwriting and spelling explicitly alongside these strategies, so that as these skills become more automatic for pupils, they can focus on what they're writing. Start by modelling the following strategies with structured support, then gradually 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 1 report by the Education Endowment Foundation