Great writing instruction thrives on both structure and responsiveness. At The Writing For Pleasure Centre, we believe that children flourish as writers when their teachers are supported to be confident, successful and reflective writer-teachers. That’s why our approach offers more than just our pre-planned units and scripted lessons. We provide expertly designed units but we also give teachers the tools and knowledge they need to eventually plan their own.
Unlike many other commercial schemes, our goal isn’t to make teachers dependent on our materials. Instead, we eventually want to empower them to design their own writing units for their classes. However, we want to ensure that their units are grounded in the principles of effective writing teaching and are responsive to the unique needs of their pupils at that time.
Expertly written units and lessons that model excellence
We refuse to naively ignore the pressures, demands and time-constraints faced by teachers. We are also very much aware of the fact that teachers rarely receive adequate training on how to teach writing while on their initial teacher education courses. We know that pre-service and early career teachers are often left frustrated and disappointed. This is why we offer scripted writing units and lessons.
Our units serve as powerful models of practice. They’ve been crafted by experienced writing teachers and researchers who understand what excellent writing instruction looks like at each stage of a child’s development. For busy teachers, or those new to teaching writing, our scripted units offer clarity, confidence, and high-quality instruction without the burden or anxiety of planning a writing unit on your own from scratch. They’re an ideal starting point for delivering coherent and consistent writing projects across a whole school.
A unique feature: Additional lessons for teacher-led planning
What sets our units apart from other commercial providers is that every writing unit we provide includes a wealth of additional lesson ideas which teachers can draw on to ‘build their own unit’ if they choose to. These lessons are like Lego bricks. Teachers can easily decide to include them or move them around. This is a deliberate and powerful design choice. We recognise that teachers know their pupils best – not us – and that they may want to tailor our units around a particular aspect of writing.
Rather than locking teachers into a fixed sequence, we offer them the flexibility to be responsive to what they think their class actually needs instruction in most! Our additional lessons allow teachers to remix, expand, and otherwise shape our units in ways that suit their classroom context – while still maintaining high standards and whole-school fidelity to evidence-informed practice.
A unique feature: Email support
A truly unique feature of our CPD training is our offer to teachers to email us their unit plans so that they can receive quick assistance, feedback and encouragement. Teachers are able to gain reassurance and insight from experienced mentors. This kind of personal and ongoing support helps teachers refine their practice, grow in confidence, and feel part of a wider writing teaching community. They don’t have to plan alone.
A unique feature: Literature that builds independence
Our third unique offering is our collection of eBooks and research summaries which support teachers in understanding the principles behind effective pedagogy so they can develop the confidence to plan their own units from scratch. This is always our long-term aim: that teachers engage deeply with pedagogy, see how our scripted units reflect best-practice in action, and then use that knowledge to become independent curriculum designers.
This isn’t about just handing over scripts to teachers and being done with it. It’s about their professional growth. Teachers are not technicians – they are thinkers, writers, and professionals. Our eBooks are designed to help them embrace that role fully.
Conclusion: From holding your hand to self-sufficiency
By offering high-quality scripted units, and also the tools for self-directed planning, we believe we provide something unique: support without dependency. We meet teachers where they are – whether they want to follow a fully scripted unit, adapt one using our additional lessons, or create their own from the start. We walk with them on their journey towards greater confidence and professional autonomy.
This is how we help develop not only better writing outcomes for children, but also more empowered, knowledgeable, and fulfilled teachers of writing.
What now?
- Teachers and schools can purchase any of our EYFS-KS2 writing units from our website at a unit price of £5.95 [LINK].
- Teachers can purchase an individual licence to our website for £28.50 a year. This gives them access to all our eBooks, unit plans and resources [LINK].
- Schools can purchase a whole-school licence to our website for £400 a year. This gives everyone access to our eBooks, programme of study, assessment guidance, CPD materials, units plans and resources. If you’re a smaller school, contact us, as we may be able to provide you with a discount [LINK].
If you want to get in touch, you can use our contact form or email us: hello@writing4pleasure.com
Ross Young & Felicity Ferguson