How To Teach Writing In Key Stage One

The Writing For Pleasure Centre operates as both a think tank and an action research community, focused on sharing effective practices, case studies, and research findings. Our central mission is to help all young people become passionate and successful writers by investigating what “world-class writing teaching” means. The Writing For Pleasure approach is built upon extensive research, including meta-analyses and case studies of the most effective writing teachers.

Our research has identified 14 enduring principles which represent the most effective teaching practice for raising standards and accelerating progress. The Writing For Pleasure approach is essentially a synonym for world-class writing teaching.

At the heart of our pedagogy in Key Stage One is the practice of children and teachers writing every single day. Children write for a variety of purposes and audiences. They learn to “live the writer’s life” and are encouraged to be in a constant state of composition, supported by dedicated writing lessons of at least one hour daily. Classrooms become genuine writing communities that feel like a mixture of creative writing workshops and professional publishing houses. This creates a climate of pleasure, high-standards and rigour.

In KS1, the focus is on making picturebooks and “chapter books” for others to read. These books allow children to share their enjoyment in telling short narratives or share what they know with others (non-fiction). Narrative writing includes fictional stories and personal narratives (memoirs). Non-fiction writing can range from traditional, objective information texts to more personal, engaging, and even hybrid texts that incorporate elements of memoir, humour, or artistry. Progression in both narrative and non-fiction writing is facilitated by encountering only a few different genres and revisiting these time and again to deepen children’s understanding and gain mastery through repeated practice.

Our approach guides children through a developmentally appropriate writing process which includes:

• Introduction and goal setting: Projects begin by establishing a publishing goal (who the book is for) early on, which significantly increases writing motivation. Children are sometimes involved in setting this goal. They also engage in reading as writers, studying high-quality mentor texts which match realistically what the children should be looking to achieve and identify craft moves (success criteria) for the project.
• Planning: Planning is essential for focusing on ideas and easing the drafting process. In KS1, drawing is seen as the most powerful planning tool, acting as the “fuel” for children’s writing. Talking about their drawings adds detail and helps children prepare their sentences. Setting small, manageable daily “process goals,” such as completing one page, helps children feel secure and gives them a sense of achievement each day.
• Drafting: The aim is for children to draft fluently, quickly and happily. Again, teachers set a specific daily process goal before modelling one very specific craft move that children should apply in their own writing that day. Providing daily high-quality verbal feedback to the children during drafting is also seen as vital.
• Revising: Separate from proofreading, revision involves children revisiting their drafts to add value, perhaps adding details, new pages, or changing words. The product goals for the project are turned into revision checklists and are used during dedicated small group revision sessions. This ensures that every child has used (or at the very least tried out) all the success criteria independently within their own writing. This means any of the children’s writing can be used for moderation purposes.
• Proofreading: Focused sessions on transcriptional accuracy ensure books are “reader friendly”. Our CUPS routine (Capitalisation, Use of Vocabulary, Punctuation, Spelling) provides a systematic way for children to proofread, focusing on one area at a time to avoid cognitive overload. Teachers provide explicit instruction, model proofreading, and conference, always praising children’s edits.
• Publishing and performing: Projects culminate in publishing the books for their intended audience. A celebratory “Publishing Party” is often recommended, involving children in the planning. Teachers can teach mini-lessons on performing (voice projection, pace). The “Tickle your writing” technique helps children connect spoken words to the print on the page. Publishing also provides an extra context for explicit handwriting instruction and practice.

Daily lessons are central to teaching writing in KS1. Our short, focused lessons teach one specific craft move or convention, often derived from mentor texts or the class’s product goals. A typical lesson structure involves orientating children to the project, discussing and “selling” the craft move, modeling its use (with teacher-written or commercial examples), providing information (often as a poster), inviting children to apply it in their own writing, and evaluating its use through verbal feedback and whole-class sharing. Examples include lessons on using dialogue, understanding sentence structure and conventions, using conjunctions, creating expanded noun phrases or “painting with words”, using fronted adverbials, applying the “power of three”, and techniques like “make a drawing – tell your drawing – write your sentence”.

A profound connection between reading and writing is a cornerstone of our approach. Children draw on familiar plots, settings, and characters from their reading in their own writing. Our mentor texts are crucial for showing children what “good writing” looks like and inspiring their own compositions. Teachers model how to read as writers, noticing the techniques authors use. Mentor texts can be commercial books, books written by the teacher, or examples provided by us in our unit plan materials.

Alongside class writing projects, children engage in personal writing. These personal books allow children more choice over genre and content, developing their writing fluency, a sense of ownership, and a consistent writing practice (at school and at home). Different organisational methods for personal projects exist, including using writing journals, personal project books which follow the writing process, or independent projects which should match the genre the class is currently studying.

The other key component of our approach is the use of sentence-building mini-projects. The projects are designed to build up children’s writing skills quickly but incrementally, starting with simple sentences and progressing towards a full repertoire of understanding. These short projects are based on three evidence-informed principles:

1. Teaching students what sentences are and expanding their awareness of syntactic possibilities.
2. Focusing on sentence formation and revision to gradually reduce cognitive load.
3. Improving children’s writing fluency.

These projects encourage children to see the function of different punctuation and sentence types and how manipulating syntax helps them discover different ways of expressing ideas. They allow children to focus on crafting small, manageable pieces of text within the broader process of ‘making’ real writing.

Importantly, our approach includes specific strategies for supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and English language learners. Children with SEND participate in all shared practices and benefit from the consistent routines, processes, and ample time for planning, drawing, writing, and sharing. Strategies include the use of the bookmaking process, sitting with more confident peers, ongoing encoding and handwriting instruction, assistant teacher support, individual process goals, visual resources, priority for verbal feedback conferences, and writing about self-chosen topics. Similarly, English language learners are fully involved from the start, benefiting from the social environment, encoding strategies, drawing as a planning/conversation tool, visual resources, translanguaging, producing dual-language books, and writing on self-chosen topics. Drawing is particularly highlighted as important for English language learners as it acts as a plan and supports simple conversations and translations.

Finally, with regards to assessment, we provide development scales for both teachers and children, covering all aspects of the National Curriculum and STA Writing Framework. We cover areas like: development of voice, structure and organisation, and clarity and accuracy.

By implementing our evidence-informed, rigorous, and joyful approach, teachers can equip their young writers with the tools and confidence to express themselves, share their knowledge, and develop a lifelong love of writing.

Supporting documents and resources:

We work hard to provide very affordable unit plans and resources to schools.

1. Individual teachers can purchase our eBooks on How To Teach Writing In KS1 or our unit plans for £5.95. Schools can purchase a licence for all their staff to gain access to these eBooks for £54.75 [LINK].
2. 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].
3. 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, get in touch as we may be able to provide you with a discount [LINK].

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