What is the OTTO Club?

The OTTO Club is a handwriting intervention for Year 1 pupils, developed by Occupational Therapists and designed to improve writing quality through teacher-led sessions. The programme is initially delivered over 10 weeks to the whole class. Schools can then choose to extend it for an additional 10 weeks as a targeted intervention.

The programme includes weekly class-based activities and daily follow-ups focusing on postural stability, fine motor development, and handwriting. Teachers and teaching assistants are supported to deliver sessions, administer assessments, and measure pupil progress. They receive a comprehensive manual and access to demonstration videos, in addition to a training session.

Who is leading this project?

The project is led by the OTTO Club, a dedicated team of experienced Occupational Therapists. If allocated to the intervention groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the intervention group will receive the programme being tested. , Year 1 teachers and teaching assistants participating in the programme will receive online training which will be given by an OTTO Club therapist. Training lasts 1.5−2 hours and takes place at the start of the autumn and spring terms.

What will this project look like in your setting?

For schools allocated to the intervention groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the intervention group will receive the programme being tested. , the class teacher and/​or teaching assistant will attend an online training session delivered by an occupational therapist, where they will be introduced to The OTTO Club manual and relevant materials required to teach the 10-week programme. They will then deliver weekly sessions as part of their literacy lesson (45 minutes), accompanied by daily activities (5 ‑10 min) which reinforce this session. Each weekly session covers core stability, fine motor skills and handwriting. These core activities are designed to develop children’s underlying postural control, improve manual dexterity and help develop the intrinsic muscles in the hands needed for developing a functional pencil grasp, alongside fluidity and endurance for writing.

As this is a research evaluation, both intervention and control schools will be required to engage in some evaluation activities, including supporting the evaluators to carry out pupil assessments, as well as engaging in surveys and/​or interviews with the evaluators. Exact evaluation requirements will be set out in the information materials if you express an interest in this project.

Intervention schools will be asked to contribute £200 for the programme.

Who can take part?

State-funded mainstream primary schools in England are eligible to take part if they:

• Have pupils in Year 1 during the 2025 – 2026 school year who are in a single-aged class (no mixed classes).
• Are not taking part in other handwriting trials or involved in any other trial targeting pupils in Year 1 in the 2025 – 2026 school year.
• Are not currently delivering The OTTO Club programme, or using another manualised handwriting programme for Year 1 during the 2025 – 2026 school year.
• Are not already involved in the EEF’s Evidence into Action partnerships, where interventions are focused on literacy in Key Stage 1.

Handwriting is recognised as a crucial element of the writing process. By improving writing automaticity, cognitive load is freed up and pupils are able to focus on the content of their writing. Wider evidence suggests that children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds have a higher incidence of handwriting challenges as well as delays in gross and fine motor skill development, impacting handwriting development.

A number of approaches tend to focus exclusively on handwriting itself and do not consider the underlying components required for successful handwriting development. This trial tests an alternative approach by training teachers to focus on improving the issues which prevent functional handwriting skills.

The OTTO Club was previously funded by a local authority. Before and after handwriting samples offer qualitative data which show improvements in writing quality (i.e., improved letter formation, spacing, sizing etc) as well as writing ability (from illegible letters to sentence writing). While this shows tentative evidence of some positive effect, the programme has not been independently evaluated and would benefit from a rigorous trial.

The funding for this project and evaluation is from the Department for Education’s Accelerator Fund, which aims to expand the use of evidence-based programmes.

This project will be evaluated by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) through a randomised controlled trialAn RCT is used evaluate an educational programme by assigning settings to one of two groups: the intervention group, who receive the programme or the control group, who continue with business as usual. This ensures that any differences in outcomes can be confidently attributed to the programme, providing a robust estimate of the impact and contributing to the evidence for what works in improving educational outcomes.. The trial will assess the impact of The OTTO Club on pupils’ handwriting attainment and writing attainment. Schools have a 50% chance of being allocated to the intervention groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the intervention group will receive the programme being tested. (receiving The OTTO Club programme). Schools allocated to the control groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the control group continue with their usual practices and help provide a comparison to measure the intervention’s impact. They are usually offered a monetary compensation as thanks for their contribution. will continue with business as usual.

An implementation and process evaluationAn IPE is used to understand how and why an intervention has (or has not) been successful. Data is analysed to explore programme quality, reach, adaptation and differentiation, as well as setting fidelity and responsiveness to the trial design. will be conducted alongside the impact evaluation to explore how schools implement the programme and perceptions of The OTTO Club.