Every Child Writes

Every Child Writes was a programme for primary schools in Oxfordshire that aimed to:

  • help schools to improve children’s writing skills in lower Key Stage 2
  • be a springboard for schools to achieve further improvements in writing

60 primary schools took part in Every Child Writes from January 2015 to September 2016. It was run by Edge Hill University’s Every Child Counts team on a not-for-profit basis in partnership with Oxfordshire County Council and the participating schools.

It had four strands:

  1. CPD for Senior Leaders
  2. CPD for English Subject Leaders
  3. CPD for Years 3 & 4 Teachers
  4. Intervention Training for Teaching Assistants

 

Key features included:

  • building classroom-to-classroom and school-to-school partnerships
  • a key role for English subject leaders in supporting, monitoring and enhancing ECW
  • using high-quality texts to provide strong models of writing within contexts that excite, engage and motivate children and their teachers
  • understanding and building on the requirements of the National Curriculum 2014
  • 1stClass@Writing, an Every Child Counts intervention that uses engaging and exciting writing experiences to develop struggling and reluctant writers’ core skills

 

Aims for the children included:

  • children will see themselves as writers
  • children will have the technical skills to write
  • children will have something to say and be able to compose
  • at least 75% of children in lower Key Stage 2 will meet end-of-year expectations
  • the attainment gap between vulnerable groups and their peers will narrow
  • the lowest-attaining children will catch up with their peers

Read about the Oxfordshire Reading Campaign and Every Child Writes here.