Writing is a vital skill for learning, communication, and self-expression. It supports academic success across subjects and is essential for personal development and future opportunities. Despite its importance, there is limited robust evidence on the most effective ways to teach writing, particularly for pupils from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Writing is a complex process that involves multiple components – such as transcription, composition, spelling, grammar, and handwriting – making it a challenging area to teach and learn.
The Department for Education reported in 2025 that attainment was lower in writing than reading and maths, a trend that has persisted since 2022. The latest data shows that only 59% of disadvantaged pupils met the expected standard in writing at the end of Key Stage 2, compared to 78% of pupils not known to be disadvantaged.
The EEF’s focus on writing theme aims to address this gap through targeted research and programme development.
The EEF has commissioned the following two reviews to inform this theme.
- An evidence review (Slavin et al., 2019) synthesised findings from 14 writing programmes and identified seven promising approaches, including cooperative learning, structured writing guides, peer/self-assessment, reading – writing integration, motivation-focused strategies, explicit teaching of writing conventions, and teacher continuing professional development.
- A practice review (Grima et al., 2024) explored current teaching practices and challenges in writing instruction across primary and secondary schools. It highlighted the importance of oracy-led approaches, step-by-step writing strategies, and high-quality reading texts as key drivers of motivation and success.
Additional scoping work has informed evaluation design, including summaries of outcome measures, theory of change components, and common mediators and moderators. These resources support evaluators and delivery teams in designing high-quality writing trials.
| EEF Toolkit | The Teaching and Learning Toolkit includes multiple strands relevant to writing, such as feedback, metacognition, and oral language interventions. These strands are supported by studies involving primary and secondary learners, with synthesis work underway to better understand writing-specific outcomes. |
| Evidence Store | Writing is not yet a standalone theme in the Evidence Store, but relevant practices are embedded across literacy-related entries, particularly in early years and primary phases. |
| Practice and Evidence Reviews | A 2019 evidence review (Slavin et al.) analysed 14 writing programmes and identified seven promising instructional approaches. A 2024 practice review (Grima et al.) explored current teaching practices and challenges in writing instruction across primary and secondary schools. Additional scoping work has informed evaluation design, including outcome measures, theory of change components, and common mediators and moderators. |
| Evidence Mobilisation | Stakeholder sessions and surveys have informed the design of a Teacher Choices trial focused on writing. |
| Evidence into Action | Evidence into Action partnerships with Research Schools in Gloucestershire and Manchester are supporting mobilisation of writing approaches. |
In Spring and Autumn 2024, the EEF commissioned two funding rounds focused on writing. These rounds funded 11 early-stage programme development programmes, 14 trials, and two pilots across Key Stages 1 – 4. Priority areas included structured writing approaches, feedback and assessment, reading – writing integration, motivation and audience, writing conventions, and targeted support for struggling writers.
While coverage across priority areas was strong, most funded programmes are based in primary schools, and there remains a gap in writing research at the secondary level. Evaluation findings are expected from Spring 2026 onwards.
Completed trials and pilot studies
| Highest-level EEF project | Project | Delivery team | Year groups | Level of intervention | Description | Headline results | Beyond the headline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Effectiveness | IPEELL | Calderdale Excellence Partnership | Year 6 and Year 7 | Whole class | A programme that uses ‘Self-Regulated Strategy Development’ (SRSD) and memorable experiences to improve pupils’ writing. SRSD aims to develop writing skills by helping pupils to plan, monitor and evaluate their writing. | +2 months 4 padlocks Efficacy trial: +9 months 2 padlocks | The evaluation also measured writing results for pupils who used IPEELL for only one year, using a different writing test. This test showed that after one year, IPEELL pupils had made less progress than comparison pupils. This result had a very high security rating, and the results were similar for pupils eligible for free school meals. |
| Effectiveness | Grammar for Writing | University of Exeter | Year 6 | Whole class | A programme of CPD and materials for primary teachers to improve pupils’ writing by increasing their effective use of grammar. | 0 months 3 padlocks Efficacy trial: +3 months 3 padlocks | Pupils that have ever been eligible for free school meals made a small amount of additional progress compared to similar pupils in control schools. This result is not statistically significant. |
| Efficacy | Discover Summer School | Discover Children’s Story Centre | Year 6 | Targeted | A creative writing summer programme for children during the transition to secondary school. | +3 months 0 padlocks | The evaluation was unable to provide a secure estimate of the programme’s impact on reading or writing attainment due to the low number of pupils who took part and the problems with testing. |
| Efficacy | Power of Pictures | Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) | Year 5 | Whole class | A programme aiming to raise children’s (Year 5 pupils’) reading and writing skills by enhancing teachers’ understanding of the power of picture books and increasing teachers’ comfort and ability in teaching using picture books. | +1 months 3 padlocks | Children in Power of Picture schools had higher writing self-efficacy and writing creativity (ideation) scores than those from schools in which the programme was not taught. These differences suggest that Power of Pictures may have a positive impact on these outcomes. |
| Efficacy | Writing About Values | University of Sussex | Year 11 | Delivered whole class, but aimed at specifically improving outcomes for pupils eligible for free school meals | A programme of short writing exercises designed to improve outcomes for underperforming groups. | +1 months 4 padlocks | Pupils who completed more writing exercises made slightly more progress. This may mean that the intervention can lead to better outcomes if implemented more thoroughly, but might also be because the kind of pupils who completed more exercises would make more progress anyway. |
| Efficacy | Craft of Writing | University of Exeter | Year 5 | Whole class | An intervention aimed at developing teachers as writers and improving their own writing practice and their teaching of writing in order to develop pupils’ writing skills. | 0 months 2 padlocks | Pupils eligible for free school meals in treatment schools did not make additional progress in writing or self-efficacy compared with pupils in business-as-usual control schools. However, on average they did make more progress in ideation, which suggests the intervention may have some benefits for supporting creativity among pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. |
| Efficacy | Helping Handwriting Shine | University of Leeds | Year 2 and Year 5 | Whole class in Year 2, and targeted in Year 5 | A programme that adopts approaches used by occupational therapists to improve the teaching of handwriting for use in the classroom by school staff. | Year 2 0 months 4 padlocks Year 5 +2 months 3 padlocks | On average, children in Helping Handwriting Shine schools (Years 2 and 5) made no additional progress in writing composition, although this finding may be less secure than the overall results. Yet, staff and pupils viewed the programme positively, with perceived improvements in handwriting during the eight-week intervention. Staff also felt it improved their ability to teach handwriting and was relatively easy to implement. |
| Efficacy | Young Journalist Academy | Paradigm Arts | Year 5 | Whole class | A programme that sets up ‘newsrooms’ in primary schools to create interest in journalism and improve pupils’ writing skills. The programme aims to provide pupils with a meaningful purpose for writing and teach specific writing techniques. | -2 months 3 padlocks | Among surveyed teachers, 74% felt Young Journalist Academy had a positive impact on pupils’ engagement with culture and the wider world, with some evidence of longer-term improvements in media engagement and skills. However, some teachers found the time required difficult to balance with curriculum demands and challenging to embed beyond the sessions. |
| Efficacy | Integrating English (LILAC) | Enfield Council | Year 5 and Year 6 | Whole class | A programme based on a functional approach to the teaching of linguistics and grammar, whereby teachers break down the language used in their specific subject in order to improve the understanding of learners. | -1 months 3 padlocks | The process evaluation indicates that, although teachers responded positively to the training, the professional development model may not have been effective in creating the desired teacher practice change, and a simpler model may be more effective. |
| Pilot | Talk for Writing | Primary Writing Project | All primary year groups, from nursery through to Year 6 | Whole school | Talk for Writing is a three-stage approach to teaching writing: imitation (pupils internalise texts and identify transferable structures), innovation (they adapt these structures with teacher support), and invention (they independently create original texts). These tasks aim to improve writing ability by giving pupils an understanding of the structure and elements of written language. | The approach was found to be feasible, there were mixed results for evidence of promise, and the approach was found not ready for a trial. | Most teachers were enthusiastic about adopting Talk for Writing as a whole-school approach and felt it offered a consistent method for teaching writing. However, while teachers reported improvements in pupils’ writing, the literature review found mixed support for the programme’s underlying principles. |
Completed early-stage programme development projects
Trials and pilot studies in progress
| Priority area | Highest-level EEF project | Project | Delivery team | Year groups | Level of intervention | Description | Additional notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | Efficacy | English Mastery | ARK Curriculum Plus | Year 7 and 8 | Whole class | A Key Stage 3 English curriculum programme, including reading and writing content. | COVID-19-impacted trial with no impact report published in 2021. Retrial now underway. The report will be published in Spring 2026. |
| Reading and writing | Efficacy | Power of Reading | Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) | Year 5 | Whole class (but typically a whole school programme) | The Power of Reading is a whole school reading and writing programme that trains teachers and supports schools to develop a high-quality English curriculum. | The report will be published in Spring 2028. |
| Motivation, purpose and audience | Efficacy | Rehearsal Room Writing | Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) | Year 5 | Whole class | A professional development programme that aims to improve pupils’ motivation to write through their teacher’s use of rehearsal room techniques in the classroom. | The report will be published in Spring 2027. |
| Structured approaches to writing | Efficacy | Writing Roots | Literacy Tree | Reception to Year 7 | Whole school | A whole-school curriculum and professional development programme to improve writing outcomes for primary pupils. | The report will be published in Spring 2027. |
| Writing conventions | Efficacy | The OTTO Club | The OTTO Club | Year 1 | Whole class | The OTTO Club focuses on strengthening the skills needed for handwriting, including postural stability, functional pencil grasp, adequate fine motor skills and dexterity, as well as teaching the correct components of writing, such as letter formation, placement, spacing and sizing. | The report will be published in Spring 2027. |
| Structured approaches to teaching writing (and targeted interventions for struggling writers) | Pilot | Pathways Literacy | The Literacy Company | Year 3 | Whole class and targeted | A whole-class mastery learning approach to writing at Key Stage 2, with an additional targeted intervention element for pupils requiring further support. Pathways Literacy aims to provide a structured approach to teaching children how to use metacognitive strategies during different stages of writing composition. | The report will be published in Spring 2027. |
Early-stage programme development programmes in progress
| Priority area | Highest-level EEF project | Project | Delivery team | Year groups | Level of intervention | Description | Headline results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Targeted interventions for struggling writers | Development | Expressive Writing for Year 7s | The Knowledge Hub (with National Institute for Direct Instruction). | Year 7 | Targeted | A Key Stage 3 programme that helps pupils who haven’t mastered foundational writing skills. Pupils learn to construct simple sentences and build on this until they can use their learning to write cohesive paragraphs. | Cycle period: January 2025 – March 2026 |
| Motivation, purpose and audience | Development | Key Stage Three: Features of Fiction | Harris Federation | Year 7 to Year 9 | Whole class | Focuses on helping students understand and apply narrative techniques such as dialogue, narrative perspective, and free indirect speech. Through four selected short stories, students analyse key aspects of narrative construction via guided activities. | Cycle period: January 2025 – March 2026 |
| Writing conventions | Innovation | Spelling Matters: Achieving Fluency in Transcription | School Improvement Liverpool | Year 2 to Year 6 | Targeted | This evidence-informed programme that aims to develop secure knowledge of spelling rules and morphemes by building on phonic knowledge for pupils across Years 2 – 6. | Cycle period: January 2025 – March 2027 |
| Writing conventions | Innovation | Spell It Like It Is | Lyons Hall Primary School (Essex Research School) | Year 7 | Whole class | An evidence-informed approach to enhance students’ access to academic language by explicitly teaching the spelling and meaning of key subject-specific vocabulary. Through a focus on morphology, etymology, and orthographic knowledge, the programme supports students to become confident and accurate spellers across disciplines. | Cycle period: January 2025 – March 2027 |
| Motivation, purpose and audience | Innovation | Improving writing outcomes at KS3 through explicit instruction of disciplinary sentence craft | Unity Schools Partnership (Unity Research School) | Year 7 | Whole class | This programme aims to improve pupil writing, and therefore outcomes, by supporting teachers to deliver sentence-level writing instruction to Year 7 pupils in English and History. | Cycle period: January 2025 – March 2027 |
| Motivation, purpose and audience | Innovation | Improving Disciplinary Writing through Metacognitive Talk | Cornwall Research School | Year 8 | Whole class | Through evidence-informed pedagogical training in teaching writing and explicit instruction in metacognitive and self-regulatory strategies, teachers will be prepared to deliver a bespoke series of lessons to year 8 science students that aim to improve their writing. | Cycle period: January 2025 – March 2027 |