There is a moment that happens in many Nursery and Reception classrooms that looks, on the surface, quite simple: you sit down and you write. You pick up a pen and the children watch with curiosity, anticipation and intrigue.

What is happening in that moment is far from simple.

When you write and make picturebooks in front of your children (daily and with genuine pleasure), they are receiving one of the richest educational experiences available to them. As they watch and listen, across dozens of domains of knowledge, understanding, skill, and disposition, they are learning an extraordinary amount.

This article sets out the full scope of what that learning looks like. It helps us see just how much is made available to children when we choose to write in front of our classes. The categories that follow make the case that daily writing lessons are not a nice extra. They are one of the most powerful pedagogical acts in the early years classroom.

As you read through it, you may find yourself thinking: I just didn’t know I was teaching them all of that!

✏️ Writing behaviours and habits

When children gather together to watch you write daily, they absorb a model of what being a writer is all about. This ‘writing business’ is something that people who come to Nursery/Reception do for pleasure. Children will begin to understand the routines and rituals of a writing life.

• Writers write daily.
• Writing and making books is enjoyable.
• Writing and making books takes time.
• Writers return to unfinished books.
• Writers can write in short sessions.
• Writing is often a process, not always a single event.
• Writers develop routines, habits and rituals.
• Writers have book ideas inside them.
• Writers notice things worth making books about.
• Writers choose to write even when they are unsure.
• Writers keep going when writing gets difficult.
• Writers make mistakes.
• Writers change their minds.
• Writers revise their pictures and their writing.
• Writers proof-read.
• Writers reread what they’ve written.
• Writers seek feedback and reactions from their friends and family.
• Writers get better by learning from other writers and through practice.
• Writers celebrate their published books.

🧑‍🎨 Writer identity

Perhaps the most transformative learning children can take from watching their teacher write is the understanding that they can be writers too. Writer-identity is caught, not taught. A teacher who genuinely inhabits a writer’s identity in front of their class each day gives children permission to be writers too.

• Adults are writers and book makers.
• Teachers are writers and book makers (my teacher was once a child who made books)
• Children are writers and book makers!
• Anyone can make story books and information books.
• Story books belong to everyone.
• Their own ideas matter.
• Their experiences and their funds of knowledge are worth turning into books.
• Their voices and creative ideas have value and can bring people immense pleasure.
• Writing and book making is a great way to express yourself.

💡 Generating ideas

One of the most exciting aspects of writing with young children is where their ideas come from. Watching their teacher wonder aloud, make connections and gather material from their world demystifies the creative process for young children.

• Stories come from your imagination.
• Stories come from your memories.
• Stories come from conversations with friends.
• Stories come from playing.
• Everyday experiences are worth writing down.
• Writers collect ideas.
• Writers observe closely.
• Writers wonder about things.
• Writers ask questions.
• Writers want to teach people about the things they care about most.
• Writers want to entertain people.
• Writers adapt their favourite stories.
• Writers experiment and try things out.
• Not every idea becomes a great book.
• Writers revisit ideas time and time again.

📋 Planning

Planning is invisible in finished books. When a teacher makes their planning visible (for example, drawing a rough sequence of illustrations in their picturebook), children begin to understand that writing is shaped by thinking and drawing.

• Writers think before writing.
• Writers draw and plan in different ways.
• Planning can involve acting things out.
• Planning can involve talking with pals.
• Plans can change.
• Writers think about sequence.
• Writers think about what comes first.
• Writers think about what comes next.
• Writers think about their endings.
• Writers think about their readers.

🗣️ Language development

When a teacher says a word, phrase or sentence aloud before writing it down, children are receiving a live demonstration of the relationship between spoken and written language. This is some of the most direct language teaching available in the early years.

• Talking can support your writing.
• Writers say words, phrases and sentences aloud before they write them down.
• Writers talk through their ideas with their friends before committing them to paper.
• Writers choose words carefully.
• Different words create different reactions in your readers.
• Writers use descriptive language.
• Writers use precise language.
• Writers use repetition.
• Writers use rhythm.
• Writers use sound patterns.
• Writers use humour.
• Writers create suspense.
• Writers use dialogue.
• Writers use questions.
• Writers use exclamations.
• Language can create emotions in your reader.

📖 Concepts about print

To help children read and write, they need to develop an understanding of how print works. A teacher who writes their own books in front of their class provides repeated, meaningful exposure to all of these print concepts in context.

• Print carries meaning.
• Words are separate units of meaning.
• Sentences are made of words.
• Text has directionality. English print runs left to right. Print runs top to bottom.
• Spaces separate words.
• Pages are turned in sequence to reveal something new to the reader.
• Books have beginnings and endings.
• Print can appear in many forms.
• Text can be large or small.
• Text and pictures work together.
• Titles have special purposes.
• Authors’ names appear on their books.
• Books have covers that reveal things about them.
• Books have numbered pages.

🔤 Letter knowledge

When a teacher writes by hand in front of children, the formation of individual letters becomes observable. Children see letters take shape in real time (their sounds, their names, their variations) and can begin to build the mental representations that will support their own conventional writing.

• Letters have shapes.
• Letters have sounds.
• Letters have names.
• Uppercase and lowercase forms exist.
• Letters appear in patterns.
• Some letters occur more often.
• Letters combine to make words.
• Letter formation requires concentration and practice. If you do it a lot, you don’t have to even think about it.

You could add a section like this after “Executive function” or immediately before “Creativity”:

🏃 Gross and fine motor development

Writing and book making are physical activities as well as cognitive ones. When children watch their teacher write and draw, they begin to understand how their bodies support literacy. Over time, they develop more and more strength, coordination, control and stamina for writing and illustration.

• Writing, drawing and colouring strengthens the small muscles in your hands and fingers.
• Holding and controlling a pencil takes practice.
• Writers are developing their hand-eye coordination.
• Writers and illustrators learn to apply different amounts of pressure to their pencils.
• Your posture affects your writing and drawing.
• Writers learn how to position their paper effectively.
• Both hands often work together during book making.

👂 Phonological awareness

Teachers who think aloud about the sounds they are putting to paper (stretching phonemes, segmenting words, noticing rhymes and patterns) are providing powerful phonological instruction embedded in a meaningful, purposeful context.

• Words are made up of sounds.
• Sounds can be stretched.
• Sounds can be segmented.
• Sounds can be blended.
• Some words rhyme.
• Some words share initial sounds.
• Words contain syllables.
• Writers listen carefully to the sounds in the words they want to write.
• Writing down sounds requires concentration and practice. If you do it a lot, you don’t have to even think about it.

🔡 Spelling

Spelling can feel abstract and remote to young children when presented as a discrete skill. When a teacher puzzles over a spelling in front of the class (using phonics, drawing on other known words, checking the word wall) spelling becomes a visible, manageable problem-solving activity.

• Writers use known words to help with unknown words.
• Approximating tricky spellings, and putting down all the sounds you can hear in a word, is useful to your readers.
• Spellings can be corrected and changed later.
• Writers use their phonics knowledge.
• Writers learn common spellings over time.
• Writers notice and remember patterns.
• Writers notice word families.
• Some words are irregular and need to be remembered.
• Writers use resources to help them spell.

📝 Sentence construction

Children who have not yet internalised what a sentence is can begin to absorb that understanding simply by watching a teacher make sentences every day. They’ll see their teacher deciding where to start, where to end and how different punctuation marks are used.?!

• Sentences express ideas. One after another.
• Sentences can be short or long.
• Writers use capital letters.
• Writers use end punctuation (full stops, question marks, exclamation marks).
• Writers reread their writing all the time to make sure it reads well for their audience.

📚 Composition

The large-scale decisions about what a text will contain is usually invisible to children who only ever read finished books. A teacher composing in front of their class makes those decisions audible, showing children how writers build meaning across a whole text.

• Stories have different structures.
• Information texts have different structures.
• Stories involve feelings.
• Events unfold over pages.
• Writers choose what happens.
• Writers share facts and explain things to their readers to help them learn new things.

🎭 Narrative understanding

Stories are not arbitrary sequences of events. They are shaped by the logic of human experience (characters who want things, face things, and change). Children who watch a teacher build a story begin to absorb this logic deeply [LINK, LINK].

• Characters have wants and feelings.
• Characters make choices and face challenges.
• Actions have consequences.
• Relationships matter.
• Perspectives differ.
• Life stories can be retold.
• Stories can be realistic.
• Stories can be fantastical.
• Stories can be funny.
• Stories can be sad.
• Stories can be exciting.
• Stories can be surprising.
• Stories can be scary.
• Stories can be gross!

📕 Bookmaking knowledge

Making picturebooks gives young children access to the most developmentally appropriate writing process. They also gain a set of design principles that shape every book they will ever read and write. These are not trivial aesthetic considerations; they are the craft knowledge of the medium.

• Books are designed.
• Page turns matter.
• Illustrations support meaning.
• Images can tell part of the story or explain something really well.
• Covers attract readers.
• Titles are chosen.
• Endpapers exist.
• Size and format affect reading.
• White space matters.
• Text placement matters.

🎨 Artistic understanding

When a teacher illustrates their picturebook, the classroom becomes a studio. Children begin to understand that visual art is not decorative but communicative. The choices an illustrator makes are intentional, revisable and meaningful.

• Illustrations can show emotions.
• Colour creates mood.
• Scale influences meaning.
• Details can support the text.
• Pictures can show information not stated in text.
• Images can create humour.
• Images can create tension.
• Contrasts between text and pictures are possible.

🧠 Metacognition

When a teacher thinks aloud while writing (noticing what is and isn’t working, articulating reasons for choices, revisiting decisions) they are modelling one of the most transferable cognitive skills children can develop: thinking about their thinking.

• Writers think about their writing.
• Writers monitor possible misunderstandings.
• Writers reread and reflect.
• Writers make changes.
• Writers learn from previous experiences.

⚙️ Executive function

Writing is one of the most demanding executive-function tasks that humans regularly perform. Watching a skilled writer manage their attention and focus, and push through difficulties gives children a visible model of how these cognitive processes work.

• Sustained attention and focus really matters.
• Self-control supports writing.
• Book-making can be broken down into small manageable parts.
• Improvement is possible with time and hard work.
• Expertise develops over time.
• Practice matters.
• Learning to write never ends.
• Confidence grows through repeated experience.
• Writing something of quality needs time.

✨ Creativity

When a teacher takes a creative risk (tries an unexpected idea, combines things in a new way, laughs at a strange image that works) children see that creativity is not a gift some people have and others don’t. They can take creative risks too.

• Original and kooky ideas are valued.
• There are multiple ideas that can work.
• Experimentation is exciting.
• Risk-taking is encouraged.
• Unexpected combinations are enjoyable.
• Book-making is ‘play on paper’.

❤️ Emotional development

Writing can be emotional. It involves vulnerability, frustration, pride, and the particular satisfaction of finishing something you’ve made. When a teacher brings genuine emotions to their writing, and names those emotions, they give children a richer vocabulary for their own lives and texts.

• Feelings can be expressed through stories.
• Sharing stories can help us make sense of our experiences.
• Frustration is normal.
• Pride accompanies achievement.
• Persistence leads to feelings of satisfication.
• Imperfection happens.
• Feedback from your friends and teacher can make you feel amazing.
• Sharing your book with others to see their reactions can be so rewarding and can become addictive!
• It’s OK to be unsure.

🤝 Social learning

Writing in front of children is not a solitary act. It invites children into a collaborative intellectual space where ideas are shared, refined, and built upon together. The classroom becomes a community of writers. Children enter the ‘writing club’.

• Writing can involve collaboration.
• Writers exchange ideas.
• Writers listen to their readers.
• Different viewpoints enrich stories.
• Writing communities create their own writing culture.
• Other people can influence our book making.
• Books are made for readers. Books are made to be read and performed. Books are olive branches that allow us to make and share meaning with others. Books bring people together.

🔄 Reading–writing reciprocity

Reading and writing are not completely separate subjects. Writers are readers and readers can be writers. A teacher who makes this relationship explicit (reading and discussing mentor texts, noticing what an author has done, borrowing an idea) demonstrates one of the most important truths about literacy.

• Reading and writing are connected.
• Writers are readers.
• The books we read can influence the books we make.
• Authors study other authors.
• Vocabulary from reading supports our writing.
• Reading provides models.
• Writing deepens reading comprehension.
• Decoding helps with encoding.

🏭 Knowledge about publishing

Children who understand that books go through stages have a more accurate and empowering model of what making a book involves.

• Books go through stages.
• Drafts precede final versions.
• Authors revise.
• Editors exist.
• Books reach audiences.
• Authors receive responses from their fans.
• Books circulate within communities.

🌍 Cultural understanding

Stories carry cultures. When a teacher writes stories that reflect diverse experiences and voices, and invites children’s own stories into the classroom, they communicate something fundamental about whose knowledge and whose life is worth writing about [LINK and LINK].

• Stories and information texts reflect cultures.
• Stories and information texts preserve traditions.
• People’s languages and dialects are valuable.
• Diverse experiences deserve representation.
• Reading people’s books can increase our understanding of them.
• Making books shapes children’s identities.
• Making books builds belonging.

🔢 Scientific and mathematical concepts embedded in bookmaking

The making of a picturebook is, among other things, an exercise in applied mathematics and scientific thinking.

• Sequencing.
• Pattern recognition.
• Classification.
• Comparison.
• Measurement.
• Spatial relationships.
• Position and direction.
• Cause and effect.
• Prediction.
• Observation.
• Recording information.
• Counting pages.
• Ordering events.
• Estimating space.
• Symmetry and shape.
• Size relationships.

The biggest learning of all

At the heart of all of this is something simpler and more important than any of the individual categories above. When a Nursery or Reception teacher sits down and writes in front of their class (daily, purposefully, and with genuine engagement) children learn something that no worksheet or workbook can teach them:

Books are not mysterious objects created elsewhere by unknown experts. They are made by ordinary people through thought, talk, drawing, revision, persistence and joy. I can be an author and illustrator too.

🏫 Practical classroom takeaways

• Write in front of your class daily [LINK].
• Make picturebooks. The bookmaking approach is the most developmentally appropriate writing process for the youngest of writers [LINK].
• Invite children into the process. Ask for ideas, take suggestions, read back and ask if it sounds right. Writing in front of children should be a social act [LINK].
• Talk about being a writer, not just about writing. Use identity language: we’re writers in this class.
• Connect your writing to your reading. Show children mentor texts. Name the authors you are learning from. Show children that reading feeds writing [LINK].
• Celebrate finished work. Share the books you make with your class. Let children see that their teacher’s writing reaches an audience and matters.
• Remember what you are teaching. On any given day, when you sit down and write in front of your class, you may be teaching a writerly habit, a planning technique, an encoding strategy or a craft move. Focus on modelling just one thing [LINK].
• Ask children to book-make too. Immediately after modelling your bit of writing, ask children to go and work on their picturebook too. Make sure children have a daily time to write [LINK].

On the 17th of June 2026, the National Literacy Trust published a report entitled ‘Why Children and Young People Do or Do Not Engage with Writing in Their Free Time’ [LINK].

The mission of The Writing For Pleasure Centre is to help all young people become passionate and successful writers. As a think tank for exploring what world-class writing is and could be, a crucial part of our work is analysing emerging research and reports.

The NLT’s report makes for sobering reading. Drawing on written responses from 55,075 children and young people aged 8-18, Why Children and Young People Do or Do Not Engage with Writing in Their Free Time sets out to understand, in young writers’ own words, why so many of them are switching off from writing.

The headline numbers are pretty stark: 

• Writing enjoyment in free time has almost halved in fifteen years. 
• At the end of KS2 in England, 28% of pupils did not meet the expected standard in writing, rising to 41% among disadvantaged pupils.

What makes this report especially enlightening is its method. Rather than asking whether children and young people enjoy writing, the NLT has asked why, and even built a model of writing engagement directly from what the students said.

The research team identified three types of volitional writers: keen writers, ambivalent writers and averse writers. From the themes that emerged, they built a model organised around four interacting domains:

• Behavioural. These are the writerly habits and routines children establish. 
• Affective. This is the emotional feelings that can come with writing: enjoyment, anxiety, pride, frustration, identity.
• Cognitive. The thinking that’s involved in writing. From generating ideas to remembering the mechanics of spelling and handwriting.
• Social. The people, audiences and contexts that influence a child’s writerly life.

Just as we point out in our book Engaging Writing Teaching [LINK], the NLT’s report insists that these domains aren’t separate entities. A pupil who feels emotionally connected to their writing (affective engagement) is more likely to sustain effort (behavioural engagement) and think deeply about possible improvements (cognitive engagement). Likewise, a sense of belonging within a writing community (social engagement) can amplify confidence, motivation and persistence.

Understanding engagement through this multidimensional lens helps us, as teachers, see writing not as a solitary act but as a complex blend of doing, feeling, thinking and relating to others. It reminds us that when pupils disengage from free-time writing it is not a matter of laziness or indifference but perhaps a signal that one or more of these dimensions is missing or is underdeveloped.

What do we know about these keen, ambivalent and averse writers?

The NLT’s three groups aren’t neatly separate types of child so much as three points on a continuum, and the report is careful to stress that children move along it.

Keen writers describe writing as being an extension of their identity, creativity and emotions. Autonomy is central here. The majority of this group said being supported to choose what they write about, and what style they want to write it in, motivates them. As one student put it, ‘Writing makes me feel at home and brings me closer to myself.’ Notably, girls, younger children, and pupils receiving free school meals were all overrepresented in the keen writers group.

Ambivalent writers are the largest and most volatile group. Their relationship with writing can fluctuate: enjoyable when they have chosen a topic that aligns with their interests or when there is a real audience, but easily disrupted by fragile confidence, the effort writing demands, or the competing pressures on their time. The report identifies a recurring tension in this group between strong cognitive and creative interest in writing and a frustration in their inability to sustain it once their writing project starts to feel effortful. This appears to be particularly the case when it comes to things like spelling, handwriting and translating their ideas into text.

Averse writers show the deepest disengagement. Averse writers are more likely to be older pupils and boys (44% of boys identified as averse, compared with 27% of girls). For this group, writing is basically  associated with school-based obligation and compliance, and, as a result, is very rarely self-initiated. Negative experiences with school-based writing tasks come up repeatedly as the point at which any residual enjoyment from writing was extinguished.

Where these findings meet what we already know

For readers familiar with our Writing For Pleasure approach, several threads in this report will land as strong corroboration rather than new information.

Keen writers understand the purposes for writing in ways their peers perhaps don’t. To develop a class of keen writers is to help them realise that writing allows us to make and share meaning. These are meanings we are eager to commit to paper and share with others. When we support children to choose their own writing ideas within the parameters of a class writing project, we help them choose something they are keen to write about. When they are keen on their topic, they are keen to learn how they can write about it well. When we explicitly teach children how to generate and choose their own writing ideas for class writing projects, we are also giving them the skills to do this in their free-time writing too.

A lack of writing fluency is doing major damage. The cognitive domain findings among ambivalent and averse writers repeatedly describe spelling, handwriting and translating ideas into text as feeling incredibly effortful. This is precisely the dynamic captured in our Writing Map development model, in which developing children’s writing fluency is seen as an instructional priority. Without such fluency, strain at the transcription level makes writing feel effortful (even painful) and draws cognitive resources away from the important work of composing something really great. The NLT’s qualitative data gives this aspect of our writing model a human voice.

Real audiences for children’s volitional writing aren’t extras. Across all three groups, the presence of genuine and supportive audiences was seen as essential. For averse writers, the absence of real audiences renders their writing as ‘purposeless’. For the keen writers, real audiences and pursuing their own authentic purposes were described as actively sustaining their motivation to write. This squares closely with our principles that children need to write for real reasons and real readers, not solely for a teacher-evaluation [see this LINK for ideas on how you can bring real audiences to children’s free-time writing].

Poorly designed school writing practices are undermining pupils’ free-time writing engagement. Perhaps the most uncomfortable finding for policymakers is how frequently children, especially older, averse writers, trace their disengagement directly to the controlling, compliance-based and assessment-heavy writing practices used in their schools.

Being economically underserved doesn’t predict disengagement. Children receiving free school meals are more represented among keen writers than their peers, not less. This contradicts any lazy narratives that try to link socioeconomic disadvantage to writing aversion (These kids haven’t got any experiences – they haven’t got anything to write about…) [LINK for more on this].

What this means for classroom practice

1. Teach for authorial agency. Explicitly teach children idea generation strategies during your class writing projects so that they can use them in their free time writing too [LINK and LINK to learn about these strategies].
2. Give their volitional writing somewhere to go. Audiences beyond the teacher (peers, younger pupils, families, school publications, online platforms, people beyond the classroom) consistently appear where engagement is highest, and their absence where it’s lowest.
3. Check children’s writing fluency. Where handwriting, spelling and writing fluency are adding cognitive load, address them quickly through explicit teaching, assessment and intervention [LINK for more details on this].

For more, consider purchasing our eBook Engaging Writing Teaching. Remember, all our books and resources are free for members. To become a member, sign up here.

Hi everyone! Really looking forward to our professional development/learning course for primary school teachers and school leaders, starting next week! 😊

Drawing upon contemporary research, Professor Sarah McGeown and I will provide clear research-informed practices to support children’s reading and writing acquisition and development throughout primary school, focusing on both the skill and will in literacy learning, enjoyment and engagement. 

Come join us! We’d love to see you. Alternatively, maybe do us a little favor and share these details with friends and colleagues. To learn more, and to register, follow this LINK.

Improving children’s reading AND writing: Connecting research and practice

Five online sessions focusing on children’s reading and writing will take place across April-June from 4pm – 5pm. These sessions are designed for UK primary school teachers, primary school leaders, literacy leads and education consultants. 

The sessions are designed to provide research insights to support children’s reading and writing acquisition and development. With a focus on supporting both reading and writing skill, all those attending will have greater access and insight into contemporary research to inform their classroom practice.

Participants will gain insight into implications for practice, a curated collection of key open access research articles and, if all sessions are attended, a certificate of completion.

Sessions can be booked individually for £15 each or all four sessions can be booked at a discounted price of £50.

Sessions overview

Free webinar: 

Supporting reading for pleasure in primary schools: Examining the evidence and children’s perspectives – Tuesday 14 April, 16:00- 17:00pm

Delivered by Professor Sarah McGeown

Supporting children to reading for pleasure is a key priority in this National Year of Reading, but which ‘reading for pleasure’ practices work?  This session will explore common practices, from independent reading and teacher read-aloud, to book-talk, reading diaries, annual celebrations, and the use of rewards.  It will examine the research evidence, and children’s perspectives of these practices, to provide teachers with useful insights to support their classroom practice. 

Four paid online sessions:

Session 1: Learning to read – Thursday 30 April 2026, 16:00-17:00pm

Delivered by Professor Sarah McGeown

This session highlights the core skills underpinning reading development, research-informed practice to support children’s word reading, and the importance of nurturing an early love and interest in books, words, and stories. 

Session 2: Reading motivation and engagement – Thursday 14 May 2026, 16:00-17:00pm

Delivered by Professor Sarah McGeown

This session provides insight into the importance of reading motivation and engagement throughout primary school, research-informed principles to support reading engagement, and the reading, language, social and emotional benefits accrued from reading.

Session 3: Learning to write – Monday 1 June 2026, 16:00-17:00pm

Delivered by Ross Young

This session explores key aspects of writing development, research-informed strategies to support children as apprentice writers, and the importance of nurturing a lifelong love of writing.

Session 4: Writing motivation and engagement – Monday 22 June 2026, 16:00-17:00pm

Delivered by Ross Young

This session provides insight into the importance of writing motivation and engagement throughout primary school, research-informed principles to support children’s engagement with writing, and the social, emotional, and expressive benefits gained through the experience of being a young writer. 

Biographies

Professor Sarah McGeown is Director of the University of Edinburgh’s Literacy Lab. She has published widely in academic and professional journals, with research focusing on early reading acquisition and development to motivation and engagement in reading. She is an advocate for research-practice partners and closing the gap between research and practice to improve children’s reading experiences and outcomes. 

Ross Young is a former primary school teacher and co-founder of The Writing for Pleasure Centre. His work focuses on translating writing research into effective classroom practice, and he regularly collaborates with teachers and children in schools. He has written several books on teaching writing and leads professional development through organisations such as the UKLA. Ross is currently a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh’s Literacy Lab, studying children’s writing lives in partnership with the National Literacy Trust. 

In Engaging Writing Teaching, writer-teachers Ross Young and Felicity Ferguson explore what it means for children to be truly engaged as writers.

From the authors of The Science of Teaching Primary Writing and Writing for Pleasure, this new title offers an actionable framework for developing writing engagement in schools based on five key drivers:

• Behavioural engagement: Will I participate actively? Will I put in effort, stay focused, and persist when things get difficult?

• Affective engagement: How do I feel about writing? Am I curious, interested, and emotionally invested enough in what I’m writing?

• Cognitive engagement: How much will I think about this? Am I willing to generate great ideas, plan carefully, reflect critically and make thoughtful revisions and edits?

• Social engagement: How am I connecting with others through this writing? Am I collaborating, sharing ideas and responding to feedback as part of a community of writers?

• Academic engagement: How committed am I to mastering the skills outlined in the curriculum? Am I applying effort, strategy, and persistence to improve my academic competence?

This inspiring and practical book will help you create a writing classroom where every child feels connected, capable, and compelled to write, not because they have to but because they want to.

Individual license – £10.95

School/Institution license – £54.75

or FREE for members

The goal of this article is to reorientate our understanding of why transcription matters: shifting it away from compliance and correction, and towards a reader-centred, meaning-making approach in which transcription supports effective communication. It also seeks to hold transcription and composition together, rather than privileging one over the other, and to validate emergent writing as a legitimate starting point.

Teachers care about transcription. Walk into any primary classroom and you will find children receiving explicit handwriting and spelling lessons. You’ll see them being reminded to form their letters correctly, to check their spellings and to use capital letters at the start of sentences. Transcription is taught. It is practised. It is marked.

What we may have forgotten though is why it matters.

The DfE’s Writing Framework (2025) puts the problem plainly: 

“Too often, pupils learn to write for the circular purpose of learning to write.”

Round and round we go and somewhere along the line we forget the point of it all. We teach about transcription because it’s on the curriculum. We make it a priority because we know Ofsted will like it. We lose sight of the only reason it actually matters: so that the readers of our children’s texts can understand them and enjoy them.

“Let us be clear. If children do not learn and internalise the essential transcriptional skills involved in crafting writing (spelling, handwriting, and punctuation), then their attempts to share meaning with others may be compromised or even fruitless.”

— Ross Young & Felicity Ferguson

This shift in orientation, from transcription as compliance to transcription as communication, changes everything about how we teach it.

The Real Purpose Of Getting It Right

In our Writing Development Map (2025a), we define writing as being the construction of a text to share meaning. That word, share, is doing important work. Writing is an attempt to move and share something from one person to another. Transcription is the mechanism that makes that transfer possible.

Young writers have extraordinary things to say. The tragedy is that when transcription breaks down, those things become inaccessible. It breaks your heart. A reader who has to wrestle with a text (trying desperately to decode wild spelling attempts or else left squinting at the handwriting) loses the thread and is slowly disconnected from the writer and their meaning. That must be depressing. Their voice gets lost in the chaos.

This is the perspective we should be taking when we teach transcription. 

Not “your letters need to sit on the line” as the rule handed down from on high, but “I really want your readers to be able to enjoy the bit about the dragon!” 

Not “you’ve forgotten your full stops” simply as a correction, but “I want your readers to know when they can stop and talk about your amazing writing before they eagerly read your next thought.”

Not: “Check all the spellings I’ve underlined.” But: “Let’s make sure these words are spelt conventionally so your reader knows exactly what you mean.”

You see the difference? 

We don’t need more attention on transcription. We need better-directed attention (Young & Ferguson 2025a, 2025b, 2026a, 2026b). We know children should:

• Receive explicit handwriting and spelling lessons.
• Engage in plenty of meaningful writing experiences so that they can use and apply what they learn. 
• Receive feedback on their handwriting and spelling attempts.

Children’s transcriptional development should always be in the service of helping them make and share meaning. It’s always in the name of the reader.

The Motivational Case For Teaching Transcription Well

This is where motivation becomes not a parallel concern but a directly relevant one. Young & Ferguson (2024) note that the word motive derives from Latin meaning to move. As teachers, we need to help children see the value and purpose of writing so that they are genuinely moved to do it (and to do it to the very best of their abilities). When children understand that transcription serves their readership, effort in transcription becomes purposeful rather than merely about obedience. They are not spelling carefully out of fear of punishment or the dreaded red pen. They are spelling carefully because they want their writing (that they really care about) to stand up and be fully understood.

Research on writing motivation in primary-age children makes clear that early experiences with writing can predispose children to seek it out or avoid it altogether (Young & Ferguson 2024). A systematic review of students’ writing motivation found that authentic writing projects and a loving and supportive classroom environment are among the most powerful conditions for developing lasting motivation to write (Alves Wold et al., 2024). Feedback that connects transcriptional effort to a communicative outcome, such as “Because your spellings were so easy to understand; I could concentrate on performing it to everyone in a really entertaining way. I think they really loved it. Don’t you think so?” is precisely that kind of motivational condition. It feels different because children see it as true.

The Cognitive Case For Teaching Transcription Well

The research on why transcription matters is unambiguous. Handwriting and spelling are foundational ingredients of early writing development, not peripheral concerns (Young & Ferguson, 2023). When transcription is effortful (when a child must consciously attend to how to form every letter or how to spell every word), it crowds out cognitive resources that could be much better spent generating great ideas, selecting precise language and organising their thoughts (Young & Ferguson, 2023).

However, none of this means children are not already writers before their transcription is fully secure. Emergent writing (marks, letter-like shapes and informed spellings) are the developmental foundation for later conventional transcription (Young & Ferguson, 2025c). Emergent writing acts as a temporary scaffold, until children get their transcription skills fully up and running. Children who are allowed to use their emergent writing are already writers (Ray & Glover, 2008; Young & Ferguson, 2022). And as their transcription becomes ever more fluent and automatic, their emergent writing disappears.

“Children want to write. They want to write the first day they attend school. The child’s marks say, ‘I am’.

‘No you aren’t,’ say most school approaches to the teaching of writing.

We take control away from children and place unnecessary road blocks in the way. Then we say, ‘They don’t want to write. How can we motivate them?’”

— Donald Graves

The use of emergent writing and especially ‘kid writing’ is the ultimate leveler. It removes the ‘road blocks’ that Donald Graves is talking about. This way, everyone can be a writer from their very first day in Nursery (Young & Ferguson, 2022).

Holding Both Things At Once

The DfE’s Writing Framework (2025) offers a statement that deserves to be on every staffroom wall: 

“Transcription is not writing.”

Our Writing Development Map makes the same point. We must care deeply about transcription but we must never mistake it for the whole thing.

Figure 1. The Writing Map (Young & Ferguson, 2025a).  Simplified version reproduced for commentary purposes. Full version available [HERE].

Kim et al. (2021) conducted a meta-analysis of 24 studies and found that instruction focused solely on transcription skills (spelling and handwriting) did not yield statistically significant effects on children’s writing quality or productivity. By contrast, multi-component instructional approaches, which teach transcription alongside composition strategies, produced large and consistent improvements across all measured dimensions, including quality, productivity, and text structure. Harris et al. (2023) tested this experimentally with pupils from economically underserved areas. Integrated instruction outperformed a business-as-usual approach across major measures, including writing quality, planning, and spelling. The researchers concluded that young children can (and should) learn about transcription and composition simultaneously. Transcription, taught well, and in the right spirit, lifts everything.

Children arrive at school already knowing their marks mean something. Children are incredibly motivated to learn more about transcription because they want to be heard and understood. Our job is to make that happen.

Every time we sit down to teach transcription, let’s ask: whose needs are we focusing on right now? The answer should always be the same. Theirs, and the lucky people who get to read what they have to share.

References

• Alves-Wold, A., Walgermo, B. R., McTigue, E., & Uppstad, P. H. (2024). The ABCs of writing motivation: A systematic review of factors emerging from K–5 students’ self-reports as influencing their motivation to write. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 9, p. 1396484). Frontiers Media SA.
• Department for Education. (2025). The writing framework.
• Graves, D. H. (1983). Writing: Teachers and children at work. Heinemann.
• Harris, K.R., Kim, Y-S.G., Yim, S., Camping, A. & Graham, S. (2023). Yes, they can: Developing transcription and compositional skills together to help children write informative essays at grades 1 and 2. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 72, 102131.
• Kim, Y-S.G., Yang, D., Reyes, M. & Connor, C. (2021). Multicomponent writing instruction appears to yield better results. Educational Research Review, 34, 100401.
• Ray, K. W., & Glover, M. (2008). Already ready. NH: Heinemann.
• Young, R., & Ferguson, F. (2022). Getting children up and running as writers: Lessons for EYFS-KS1 teachers. The Writing for Pleasure Centre.
• Young, R., & Ferguson, F. (2023). The science of teaching primary writing. The Writing for Pleasure Centre.
• Young, R., & Ferguson, F. (2024). Motivating writing teaching. The Writing for Pleasure Centre.
• Young, R., & Ferguson, F. (2025a). Visualising the science of writing: The writing map explained. The Writing for Pleasure Centre.
• Young, R., & Ferguson, F. (2025b). Underwriting: Should teachers do it? The Writing for Pleasure Centre.
• Young, R., & Ferguson, F. (2025c). Debunking edu-myths: ‘Emergent writing’ isn’t necessary before teaching children to writeThe Writing for Pleasure Centre.
• Young, R., & Ferguson, F. (2026a). Spelling and handwriting provision: A checklist. The Writing for Pleasure Centre.
• Young, R., & Ferguson, F. (2026b). Debunking edu-myths: Children should only write words they can spell. The Writing for Pleasure Centre.

A policy briefing on the Writing Early Learning Goal — March 2026

Ross Young & Felicity Ferguson – The Writing For Pleasure Centre

Executive Summary: The Writing Early Learning Goal (DfE, 2024) erroneously focuses solely on the mechanics of transcription (letter formation and phonetic spelling). It does not assess composition, oral language, executive function or purpose and audience. It is therefore not a measure of early writing. The evidence is unambiguous. A meta-analysis (Kim et al., 2021) found that instruction focused solely on transcription has no significant effect on children’s writing quality. The ELG does not just fail to capture what writing is, it channels schools towards approaches that demonstrably fail to develop it. The DfE’s own Writing Framework (2025) states explicitly: ‘transcription is not writing’. The ELG assesses children solely on transcription. The DfE defines writing one way and is now measuring it in another. This is a structural contradiction that will have dire consequences. Children who meet the ELG without ever being required to compose something independently will arrive at Key Stage 1 grossly underprepared for its demands. National data will also overstate children’s writing capabilities. This briefing calls for the immediate commissioning of an evidence-led review to realign the ELG with the DfE’s own stated model of writing development.

1. What The ELG Measures And What It Misses

The Writing ELG is assessed against three criteria: 

• writing recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed.
• spelling words by identifying sounds in them.
• writing simple phrases and sentences that can be read by others.

Each criterion concerns the mechanics of putting marks on a page. None of them asks whether the child has anything to say. None asks whether they have a reason to write, a sense of a reader, a capacity to plan or revise, or a growing identity as a writer. Recent accompanying guidance makes this explicit: children ‘do not need to compose independently’ to meet the ELG, and dictated sentences (in which the teacher speaks and the child transcribes) are described as valid assessment tools (DfE, 2026).

The international research on writing development is often organised around a clear model The Simple View of Writing which identifies three components that must all develop, and must be developed together, for a child to become a writer (Berninger & Winn, 2006; Young & Ferguson, 2025). However, the ELG only addresses one of these three:

Component	What it requires	What the ELG does with it
Transcription	Handwriting, spelling, letter formation	The ELG’s sole focus
Executive Function	Planning, monitoring, revision, self-regulation, motivation	Entirely absent
Composition	Generating ideas, communicating with intent, writing for a reader	Entirely absent

The ELG, as it is currently presented, is not a measure of writing. The ELG can be met by a child who isn’t required to compose a sentence of their own. This is surely one of the lowest educational expectations you can have of a child. That child is not a writer in any sense of the word.

The DfE’s own Writing Framework (2025) recognises this, stating directly: ‘transcription is not writing’. The ELG ignores its own department’s definition.

2. The Evidence: Transcription Alone Does Not Produce Writing

The ELG’s implicit model is sequential: master transcription first and learn to compose later. Children essentially have to ‘earn their right to write’ (Young & Ferguson, 2024). However, this sense of ordering is not supported by research evidence. Indeed, it is contradicted by it.

Transcription-only instruction does not improve writing quality

Kim et al. (2021) conducted a meta-analysis of 24 studies and found that instruction focused solely on transcription skills (spelling and handwriting) did not yield statistically significant effects on children’s writing quality or productivity. By contrast, multi-component instructional approaches, which teach transcription alongside composition strategies, produced large and consistent improvements across all measured dimensions, including quality, productivity, and text structure. Harris et al. (2023) tested this experimentally with pupils from economically underserved areas. Integrated instruction outperformed a business-as-usual approach across major measures, including writing quality, planning, and spelling. The researchers concluded that concerns about cognitive overload were not supported by their data, suggesting that young children can (and should) learn about transcription and composition simultaneously. 

The policy implication is direct. An assessment framework that promotes transcription-only teaching is directing teachers towards an approach the evidence shows does not develop children’s writing.

Oral language is critical but entirely absent from the Writing ELG

Oral language is among the most consistent predictors of early writing quality with effects that grow stronger as children develop (Seoane et al., 2025). Rodríguez et al. (2024) found that oral compositional skills contribute to writing quality independently of transcription ability. McIntyre et al. (2025) found that children’s oral story telling directly predicted their written story quality.

Kim & Schatschneider’s expanded model of writing development (2017) shows that oral language serves as the bridge through which higher-order cognitive skills (inference, perspective-taking, content knowledge) reach the written page. A child who has not been given opportunities to compose lacks a critical foundation for later writing success (Young & Ferguson 2025).

The Writing ELG contains no reference to oral language. Indeed, children are not required to speak to meet the goal. Instead, they can have writing dictated to them by their teacher. An assessment that ignores one of writing’s most powerful predictors is not measuring writing well, even on its own terms.

3. The DfE Is Contradicting Itself

The strongest argument for reform does not come from external research. It comes from the DfE itself. The Writing Framework, published in July 2025, adopts the Simple View of Writing. 

The Simple View Of Writing As Illustrated In The DfE’ Writing Framework (p.17)

It emphasises the importance of composition and purpose and audience. It also warns explicitly that ‘too often, pupils learn to write for the circular purpose of learning to write.’ It also states: ‘transcription is not writing’. However, the DfE’s own writing model is now abandoned. 

The ELG reproduces only the three transcription criteria. Composition is stated not to be required. Dictated transcription is validated as evidence. This is a structural failure: the DfE is defining writing one way and measuring it in another.

4. What The ELG Produces In Classrooms

Assessment shapes teachers’ practice. When the statutory measure for writing only rewards transcription, schools will concentrate on what is rewarded. However, Gerde et al. (2022) report that children in preschool classrooms where teachers support composition and meaning-making alongside transcription demonstrate more advanced writing by the end of the year than peers in classrooms where the focus was restricted to transcription skills alone. 

A Reception year shaped by the current ELG produces a predictable profile: children who can form letters and encode phonetically but who have never been asked to generate an idea, write for a reader, plan what they want to say, or experience writing as a joyful and communicative act of meaning-making and meaning-sharing. We run the very real risk of developing the most reluctant, listless and unmotivated writers for a generation.

5. The Important Stuff The ELG Doesn’t See

The ELG’s product-focused, transcription-only framework makes two categories of developmentally significant writing behaviour entirely invisible.

Emergent writing behaviours

Children begin demonstrating compositional behaviour long before they can encode conventionally. Rowe (2018) found that children as young as three can successfully select topics, generate ideas, organise content and revise their writing. Rohloff et al. (2025) found that preschoolers frequently revise mid-composition, adjusting their plans and vocabulary as their thinking develops. These are executive function behaviours: self-regulation, monitoring, revision. They are present in children entering Reception. However, the ELG doesn’t recognise this as important to assess.

Spelling development through informed attempts

The ELG’s phonetic spelling criterion encourages teachers to simply get children to write words they already know their children will be able to spell conventionally. This simply flatters to deceive (Young & Ferguson, 2026). It tells us very little. Research also shows that these kinds of restrictions are counterproductive. Children who are encouraged to attempt words they really want to write (using informed spellings) make greater gains in phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, reading and conventional spelling than those who are restricted to writing already known words (Ouellette & Sénéchal, 2008). Attempting to spell a word requires active engagement with phoneme-grapheme relationships; reproducing already known words does not. Young & Ferguson (2026) also note that children’s informed spellings are the most valuable diagnostic information for teachers, revealing precisely what each child understands about the alphabetic code.

An ELG that encourages a ‘write only what you can already spell’ culture does not support spelling development. It impedes it while simultaneously constraining vocabulary development, thwarting children’s compositional ambitions and removing the diagnostic information that good writing teaching depends on (Young & Ferguson, 2026).

6. System Consequences

The ELG’s shortcomings do not affect only the Reception year. They will invariably generate system-level consequences.

National data distortion

A child who can transcribe a dictated sentence with correctly formed letters can now meet the ELG. That same child may be unable to independently compose a sentence, sustain a piece of writing, or write for any purpose beyond regurgitation. The data derived from ELG judgements will therefore overstate the proportion of children who are genuinely able to write. While there is no doubt that the lowering of expectations will increase the number of children who technically achieve the ELG for writing, national performance data will be misleading.

The Key Stage 1 transition gap

In KS1, children are required to independently plan, draft, revise and proof-read their compositions. These demands draw on composition, executive function and oral language – the two thirds of the Simple View of Writing the ELG does not assess. Children trained only in transcription will face a sharp increase in cognitive demand at this transition without the foundational development that will equip them to meet it. School leaders and Key Stage One teachers should be concerned.

Assessment integrity

The exemplification video accompanying the ELG carries the following disclaimer: ‘While it features real children in real school settings, their actual developmental levels may differ from what is shown, and some scenes include acting for demonstration purposes.’ Exemplification materials that use acted footage cannot calibrate professional judgement. This is not acceptable.

7. Required Reforms

The core problem is straightforward: The ELG defines writing as a skill it is not. The solution requires no new conceptual framework as the DfE’s own Writing Framework already provides one. What is required is alignment between what the Department says writing is and what it’s choosing to measure.

The research base points clearly to what better provision looks like. Young and Ferguson (2021, 2022, 2024, 2025) describe it as the ‘communicative orientation’: an approach in which transcription and composition are developed together, in which children write daily for genuine purposes and real audiences, in which oral language is treated as a foundation rather than a supplement, and in which the classroom functions as a community of writers in which children see themselves as people who have things to say and the means to say them. Research consistently shows that children in classrooms that take this integrated, communicative approach develop stronger writing skills than those in classrooms dominated by transcription-only drills (Bingham et al., 2017; Young & Ferguson, 2024). This is the model a revised ELG should support.

We call on policymakers to commission an immediate, evidence-led review of the Writing ELG with the following objectives:

1. Adopt the Simple View of Writing as the organising framework.  A revised ELG should require evidence across all three components: transcription, executive function and composition. This is the model the DfE’s Writing Framework already endorses. The ELG and the Framework must say the same thing.

2. Require independent composition.  Children must demonstrate that they can generate and communicate their own ideas in writing. The guidance stating that composition is not required must be removed. Research demonstrates that teaching transcription and composition together produces better outcomes than teaching transcription alone at every age group studied.

3. Recognise oral language. Oral language is a direct, independent predictor of writing quality. A revised ELG should include criteria that acknowledge oral compositional capacity as a component of the writing picture.

4. Recognise the writing process. Planning, drafting and revision are integral to writing development from the earliest stages. Preschool-age children demonstrate these behaviours when writing is taught well. Criteria should be added that values engagement with the writing processes and not only with the written product.

5. Include purpose and audience. Writing that communicates to a real reader for a genuine purpose develops more advanced writers than writing produced as a transcriptional exercise. Classrooms where children write for genuine purposes can go on to produce better outcomes. An ELG that ignores purpose removes the incentive to create such classrooms.

6. Revise the approach to spelling. Children who attempt to spell words they really want to write (using informed spellings) make greater gains in phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge and conventional spelling than do those children who are restricted to words they already know. A revised framework should value children’s ambitious encoding attempts and not penalise them.

7. Remove dictation as assessment evidence. Dictation measures whether a child can transcribe someone else’s sentence. It cannot measure composition, vocabulary choice, sentence construction or authorial intent. It should be retained as a teaching tool but removed as an assessment instrument.

8. Replace the exemplification materials. Authentic exemplification showing children composing independently in real classroom contexts must replace the current acted footage.

Every year that this issue persists, hundreds of thousands of children will complete the Reception year assessed as writers on a measure that does not assess writing. At present, teachers are being directed towards a version of writing that the DfE’s own guidance tells them is insufficient. We suspect it will be children from disadvantaged backgrounds who will pay the highest price.

References and further reading

• Berninger, V.W. & Winn, W.D. (2006). Implications of advancements in brain research for writing development. In C.A. MacArthur, S. Graham & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Handbook of Writing Research (pp. 96–114). Guilford Press.
• Bingham, G. E., Quinn, M. F., & Gerde, H. K. (2017). Examining early childhood teachers’ writing practices: Associations between pedagogical supports and children’s writing skills. Early childhood research quarterly, 39, 35-46.
• Department for Education (2024). Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework.
• Department for Education (2025). The Writing Framework. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68bec95444fd43581bda1c86/The_writing_framework_092025.pdf
• Department for Education (2026). EYFS profile assessment support: ELG Writing https://help-for-early-years-providers.education.gov.uk/support-for-practitioners/eyfs-profile-assessment-support/writing-early-learning-goal
• Gerde, H. K., Wright, T. S., & Bingham, G. E. (2022). Sharing their ideas with the world: Creating meaningful writing experiences for young children. American educator, 45(4), 34.
• Harris, K.R., Kim, Y-S.G., Yim, S., Camping, A. & Graham, S. (2023). Yes, they can: Developing transcription and compositional skills together to help children write informative essays at grades 1 and 2. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 72, 102131.
• Kim, Y-S.G. & Schatschneider, C. (2017). Expanding the developmental models of writing: A direct and indirect effects model of developmental writing. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(1), 35–50.
• Kim, Y-S.G., Yang, D., Reyes, M. & Connor, C. (2021). Multicomponent writing instruction appears to yield better results. Educational Research Review, 34, 100401.
• McIntyre, A., Scott, A., McNeill, B., & Gillon, G. (2025). Comparing young children’s oral and written story retelling: the role of ideation and transcription. Speech, Language and Hearing, 28(1), 2357450.
• Ouellette, G. P., & Sénéchal, M. (2008). A window into early literacy: Exploring the cognitive and linguistic underpinnings of invented spelling. Scientific Studies of Reading, 12(2), 195-219.
• Rodríguez, C., Jiménez, J. E., & Balade, J. (2025). The impact of oral language and transcription skills on early writing production in kindergarteners: Productivity and quality. Early Childhood Education Journal, 53(4), 1-11.
• Rohloff, R., Ridley, J., Quinn, M. F., & Zhang, X. (2025). Young Children’s Composing Processes: Idea Transformations in Verbalizations from Pre-Writing to Post-Writing. Early Childhood Education Journal, 53(6), 1961-1971.
• Rowe, D. W. (2018). Research & policy: The unrealized promise of emergent writing: Reimagining the way forward for early writing instruction. Language Arts, 95(4), 229-241.
• Seoane, R. C., Wang, J., Cao, Y., & Kim, Y. S. G. (2025). Unpacking the relation between oral language and written composition: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 00346543251320359.
• Young, R. & Ferguson, F. (2021). Writing For Pleasure: Theory, Research and Practice. Routledge.
• Young, R. & Ferguson, F. (2022). The Science of Teaching Primary Writing. The Writing For Pleasure Centre.
• Young, R. & Ferguson, F. (2024) The different perspectives you can take on teaching early writing. https://writing4pleasure.com/2024/03/15/the-different-perspectives-you-can-take-on-teaching-early-writing/
• Young, R. & Ferguson, F. (2025) Visualising The Science Of Writing: The Writing Map Explained. https://writing4pleasure.com/2025/02/27/visualising-the-science-of-writing-the-writing-map-explained/
• Young, R. & Ferguson, F. (2026). Debunking edu-myths: Children should only write words they can spell. https://writing4pleasure.com/2026/02/26/debunking-edu-myths-children-should-only-write-words-they-can-spell/

In some early classrooms, children compose sentences aloud while an adult writes them down. The intention is usually a good one. Teachers recognise that handwriting and spelling can place heavy demands on young writers and they want children to focus on their ideas rather than struggle with transcription.

However, this practice can unintentionally create a powerful misconception: that composing aloud is an appropriate substitute for writing.

When adult scribing becomes the main way children ‘write’, children may learn that writing is something adults do for them rather than something they are utterly capable of doing for themselves.

This is problematic because writing development depends on children practising both composition and transcription together.¹ Fortunately, early writing strategies such as emergent writing and ‘kid writing’ allow children to do exactly that from the very beginning of Nursery.²

What oral composition gets right

Oral rehearsal is a powerful tool for young writers. Saying your texts, sentences, phrases and words before you transcribe them to paper helps children:

• Organise their ideas.
• Gauge people’s reactions to their ideas before they commit them to paper.
• Hear and adjust their sentence structures.
• Try out vocabulary choices.

Teachers should model oral rehearsal strategies regularly in writing lessons and make it part and parcel of children’s writing process.³ For example:

“Let me look at my drawing. Ah, yes. I want to write about Buster, my dog, running to the front door to see me. Let me say the sentence first: Buster ran to the door to see me.”

This kind of modelling shows children that writers plan language before writing it down.

Talk also plays a crucial role in writing development. When children discuss ideas, characters and events, they practice the language structures that later appear in written texts. Opportunities to talk about texts at a discourse level (whole ideas, narratives and information) are strongly associated with later writing success.⁴

The problem arises when oral composition replaces writing rather than supports it.

When talking replaces writing

If children rarely attempt to record their own ideas on paper, they lose opportunities to develop two essential abilities:

• Transcription – forming letters and spelling words on the page.
• Composition – shaping ideas into written language.

We know writing develops through the interaction of composition and transcription.¹ 

When adults do the writing, that learning opportunity disappears. Children may still generate ideas orally but they do not practice:

• Segmenting sounds.
• Choosing letters.
• Shaping sentences on the page.
• Managing the physical act of writing.

Over time, this can lead to slower development in both transcription and composition.⁵

What emergent writing makes possible

Emergent writing recognises an important developmental truth: Children can communicate meaning in writing long before they master conventional spelling and handwriting.

Young children often combine several forms of representation in a single piece of writing:

• Drawings.
• Marks and shapes.
• Letter-like forms.
• Conventional letters and words.

Together, these elements carry meaning. Typically, the drawing represents the main idea, while the marks and letters represent specific words or phrases.

The resulting text may not resemble conventional adult writing but it is still genuine composition. The child is deciding:

• What to say.
• How best to represent it on paper.

This allows children to begin composing texts from the very start of Nursery or Reception.²

The role of ‘kid writing’

Once phonics and encoding instruction are introduced (in earnest), children should transition to using ‘kid writing’. This is where children write their words and phrases using a mixture of:

• Conventional spelling for words they do know.
• ‘Informed spellings’ based on their phonics knowledge.
• A line for the sounds or words they don’t know how to spell yet.

The typical process would look like this:

• The child looks at their drawing.
• The child says their sentence aloud.
• The child transcribes what they know to paper.
• The teacher undertakes underwriting to provide the conventional adult spellings underneath.

This approach achieves two goals. The child controls the composition and attempts the spelling. The teacher still exposes the child to correct written forms.

Why independent writing matters

When children commit their own writing ideas to paper, several important learning processes occur:

1. They practice encoding. Each informed spelling requires children to segment sounds and select letters. This strengthens their phoneme-grapheme knowledge.⁵
2. They practice sentence construction. Children must decide how to express their ideas in written language. This develops their early compositional skills.⁶
3. They see themselves as writers. Ownership matters. When children produce their own texts, they begin to view writing as something they can do independently – without constant adult supervision or intervention.⁷
4. They write more. Children who are allowed to control their compositional process produce plenty of texts. Increased writing frequency and volume will invariably lead to faster compositional (and transcriptional) development.

What happens when adult scribing dominates

When early writing experiences are replaced by a heavy reliance on adult scribes and oral composition, several limitations will emerge. Children learn that: 

• Writing requires adult assistance.
• Writing is a performance for the teacher rather than an independent act.

At the same time: 

• Opportunities to practice encoding decrease.
• Writing frequency and volume drop.

The result is slower progress in both transcription and composition.¹

What effective early writing instruction looks like

Strong early writing classrooms combine several elements:⁵

• Daily phonics instruction.
• Daily handwriting instruction and practice.
• Spelling instruction.
• Loads of meaningful, motivating and engaging writing experiences.

Within these classrooms:

• Children learn to talk about their ideas.
• Drawings are accepted as supporting children to transfer their ideas from their mind onto paper in preparation for transcribing.
• Emergent writing, ‘kid writing’ and informed spellings are used as temporary scaffolds while transcription is developing.
• Teachers engage in underwriting alongside their pupils.

In this environment, oral rehearsal supports writing rather than replaces it. Children speak their ideas, draw their ideas, and then write them. And most importantly, they learn from the very beginning that writing is something they can do themselves.⁷

Children learn a lot about writing by writing…

References

1. The research on developing children’s transcription and compositional skills [LINK]; Visualising The Science Of Writing: The Writing Map Explained [LINK]
2. Debunking edu-myths: ‘Emergent writing’ isn’t necessary before teaching children to write [LINK]; Supporting children’s early word writing [LINK]; Debunking edu-myths: Children should only write words they can spell [LINK]
3. Developing Children’s Talk For Writing [LINK]
4. Kim, Y. S. G., Park, C., & Park, Y. (2015). Dimensions of discourse level oral language skills and their relation to reading comprehension and written composition: An exploratory study. Reading and Writing, 28(5), 633-654. [LINK]
5. Supporting children’s early word writing [LINK]
6. How do we develop writing fluency? [LINK]
7. Getting children up and running as writers [LINK]; How to teach writing in the EYFS [LINK] 

Improving children’s reading AND writing: Connecting research and practice

Five online sessions focusing on children’s reading and writing will take place across April-June from 4pm – 5pm. These sessions are designed for UK primary school teachers, primary school leaders, literacy leads and education consultants. 

The sessions are designed to provide research insights to support children’s reading and writing acquisition and development. With a focus on supporting both reading and writing skill, all those attending will have greater access and insight into contemporary research to inform their classroom practice.

Participants will gain insight into implications for practice, a curated collection of key open access research articles and, if all sessions are attended, a certificate of completion.

Sessions can be booked individually for £15 each or all four sessions can be booked at a discounted price of £50.

Sessions overview

Free webinar: 

Supporting reading for pleasure in primary schools: Examining the evidence and children’s perspectives – Tuesday 14 April, 16:00- 17:00pm

Delivered by Professor Sarah McGeown

Supporting children to reading for pleasure is a key priority in this National Year of Reading, but which ‘reading for pleasure’ practices work?  This session will explore common practices, from independent reading and teacher read-aloud, to book-talk, reading diaries, annual celebrations, and the use of rewards.  It will examine the research evidence, and children’s perspectives of these practices, to provide teachers with useful insights to support their classroom practice. 

Four paid online sessions:

Session 1: Learning to read – Thursday 30 April 2026, 16:00-17:00pm

Delivered by Professor Sarah McGeown

This session highlights the core skills underpinning reading development, research-informed practice to support children’s word reading, and the importance of nurturing an early love and interest in books, words, and stories. 

Session 2: Reading motivation and engagement – Thursday 14 May 2026, 16:00-17:00pm

Delivered by Professor Sarah McGeown

This session provides insight into the importance of reading motivation and engagement throughout primary school, research-informed principles to support reading engagement, and the reading, language, social and emotional benefits accrued from reading.

Session 3: Learning to write – Monday 1 June 2026, 16:00-17:00pm

Delivered by Ross Young

This session explores key aspects of writing development, research-informed strategies to support children as apprentice writers, and the importance of nurturing a lifelong love of writing.

Session 4: Writing motivation and engagement – Monday 22 June 2026, 16:00-17:00pm

Delivered by Ross Young

This session provides insight into the importance of writing motivation and engagement throughout primary school, research-informed principles to support children’s engagement with writing, and the social, emotional, and expressive benefits gained through the experience of being a young writer. 

Biographies

Professor Sarah McGeown is Director of the University of Edinburgh’s Literacy Lab. She has published widely in academic and professional journals, with research focusing on early reading acquisition and development to motivation and engagement in reading. She is an advocate for research-practice partners and closing the gap between research and practice to improve children’s reading experiences and outcomes. 

Ross Young is a former primary school teacher and co-founder of The Writing for Pleasure Centre. His work focuses on translating writing research into effective classroom practice, and he regularly collaborates with teachers and children in schools. He has written several books on teaching writing and leads professional development through organisations such as the UKLA. Ross is currently a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh’s Literacy Lab, studying children’s writing lives in partnership with the National Literacy Trust. 

Teachers are often warned that transcription is a cognitive bottleneck in writing. The argument goes like this: because young writers must devote so much attention to letter formation and spelling, asking them to compose their own writing creates cognitive overload.

There is truth in this claim. We want children to master transcription as a matter of priority. While children are still learning transcription skills such as handwriting and spelling, these processes can place heavy demands on children’s working memory. When this happens, children’s compositions will not be as good as they could be. This is one reason why explicit instruction in handwriting, phonics and spelling is so important.

However, a misunderstanding often follows from this insight. Some educators conclude that children should not compose their own texts until transcription has reached a certain level of mastery. In other words, transcription becomes a necessary prerequisite for composition.

This conclusion is not supported by writing research.¹

Writing development does not happen in a strict sequence

This confusion often arises when ideas from reading theory are applied directly to writing. The Simple View of Reading explains that reading comprehension depends on two components: decoding and language comprehension. But this model does not prescribe how writing should be taught. 

Research on writing points to a different relationship between transcription and composition. In the Simple View of Writing, transcription and composition are understood as interacting processes that develop alongside each other over time.

While weak transcription can certainly constrain composition, the solution is not to delay composing. Instead, research suggests that both capacities should be developed concurrently.¹

Children improve their transcription not only through explicit instruction but also through frequent and meaningful writing opportunities.²

When transcription becomes a barrier

Ironically, we can create the very bottleneck we are trying to avoid! Transcription becomes a barrier when educationalists expect children to write like adults. When this happens, children receive an implicit message:

• Only write words you can spell correctly
• Limit your vocabulary use
• Keep your ideas simple

The result is predictable. Writing becomes constrained and demotivating.

How young children already solve this bottleneck problem

Studies have shown that young writers actually develop strategies that allow them to express ideas before their transcription is fully fluent. These include:

1. Emergent writing. Young children may combine drawings, marks, letter-like forms and some conventional letters to communicate meaning.³
2. Informed spelling. Children attempt spellings based on their ever developing understanding of sounds in words (for example, writing TRNSRS for tyrannosaurus).⁴
3. “Kid writing”. A mixture of lines and conventional spelling within the same text.⁵

All these strategies are rich with evidence of learning.

Research shows that children’s early spellings often reflect their developing phonological and morphological knowledge. When teachers invite children to attempt spellings in this way, they gain valuable insight into what children currently understand about sounds, letters, morphology and orthography.

Incidentally, children who are encouraged to write using these strategies go on to become stronger readers and writers than those who don’t.⁴ 

If you don’t want transcription to become a bottleneck for your pupils, don’t allow it to be.

Why allowing these strategies matters

When classrooms allow these forms of early writing, several important things happen.

• ALL children can begin composing immediately. A child who wants to write about a tyrannosaurus does not need to know the conventional spelling before attempting the word. Every child can begin their writing journey from their very first day of Nursery.
• Children write more, and more happily. More writing means more opportunities to connect sounds with letters and to apply their transcriptional knowledge in meaningful contexts.
• Children’s ideas no longer need be constrained by their transcription. Children can experiment with ambitious vocabulary and compositions without fear. they can get it all down on paper.
• Transcription continues to improve. Through explicit instruction in phonics, handwriting and spelling and frequent writing opportunities, children continue their journey towards mastering transcription early in their school lives.⁴ 

In other words, transcription develops by:

• Providing explicit instruction in letter formation, handwriting, phonics and spelling.⁶
• Teaching children strategies for encoding words, including writing ‘informed spellings’.
• Using emergent and ‘kid writing’ as temporary scaffolds while transcription is being developed (in earnest).
• Planning loads of meaningful, motivating and engaging writing opportunities so children can compose their own texts.

When these elements are in place, transcription does not prevent children from becoming writers. Instead, it develops alongside their growing joy and ability to express their ideas.

References

1. The research on developing children’s transcription and compositional skills [LINK]
2. Visualising The Science Of Writing: The Writing Map Explained [LINK]
3. Debunking edu-myths: ‘Emergent writing’ isn’t necessary before teaching children to write [LINK]
4. Supporting children’s early word writing [LINK]
5. Debunking edu-myths: Children should only write words they can spell [LINK]
6. Spelling and handwriting provision: A checklist [LINK]

How To Teach Poetry Writing In KS1, authored by Felicity Ferguson and Ross Young, is a comprehensive guide designed to transform the way poetry is taught in your classroom.

This eBook provides a practical, step-by-step roadmap for teachers to lead children through the entire journey of creating their own poetry anthologies. The guide encourages a pedagogy of structure, freedom and playfulness, allowing pupils to “live the poet’s life” by writing about what they are most passionate and knowledgeable about.

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• Complete project plans: Systematic, colour-coded guides for carrying out poetry units from initial idea generation to the final publication.
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• Guidance on selecting and using mentor texts: Strategies for using commercial books and teacher-written poems to inspire young writers.
• Support for every writer: Specific, actionable advice for supporting pupils with SEND pupils and English language learners, ensuring the writing community is inclusive.

Whether you are a confident writer-teacher, or someone who has previously struggled with teaching poetry, this guide offers the tools and inspiration needed to create a vibrant community of young poets who write with pleasure and purpose.

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