Across the new Ofsted Toolkit, the Strong Foundations report (2024) and the 2025 Writing Framework, one message is louder and clearer than anything we’ve heard in a decade:
Pupils must secure deep, early foundational knowledge and skills in writing. Without these, they cannot access breadth, develop independence or write with confidence.
For once, the system is aligned. Yet in classrooms across the country, something very different is happening.
Schools with the best intentions, full of ambition, are giving five-, six- and seven-year-olds a writing diet that is often too broad, too complex and too cognitively heavy, far too early. This looks like:
- Genre analysis before basic sentence control
- Multiple text types before fluency
- Features lists before pupils can reliably construct a sentence
This is not a criticism of teachers. It is a leadership clarity issue: too many schools are clear about the product they want but not clear enough about the foundations children need.
And the children who feel this most acutely are those facing disadvantage – those from language-poor homes, with limited early literacy experiences, SEND or hidden barriers.
Breadth without foundations does not extend opportunity. It deepens inequity.
A moment that changed how I led English
I can pinpoint the moment this truth landed for me. I was a subject leader, full of drive and ambition, determined to “raise standards.” I walked into a Year 3 classroom to watch a writing lesson we had planned together.
The teacher was doing everything right:
- Clear learning intention
- Strong modelling
- Engaging stimulus
Purposeful task
But after five minutes, a fifth of the class was just… stuck. Not misbehaving. Not distracted. Just lost. Frozen by the task. Writing strings of words with no punctuation, fluency or meaning.
This wasn’t because they lacked potential – but because they lacked foundations. In that moment, it hit me:
- Our curriculum had run ahead of them
- We had prioritised breadth over depth
- We had valued product over foundation
- We had done our most vulnerable pupils a disservice
The core question is simple: are children learning the building blocks, or simply “doing writing”?
The hard truth
Many KS1 children are doing writing – but not learning writing. They’re producing stories, recounts, instructions and poems without:
- Secure transcription
- Secure letter formation
- Accurate sentence construction
- Fluent oral rehearsal
- Functional grammar understanding
- Established stamina
Sufficient vocabulary depth
As leaders, we must ask this uncomfortable but necessary question: can we summarise, in one sentence each, the purpose of Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 in our writing curriculum?
If we can’t articulate this purpose, we can’t secure progression. And if progression is not secured, the children who need clarity most will fall behind first.
What KS1 writing is really for
Year 1: Learning how writing works
Not genre. Not features. Not imitation. Year 1 is about:
- Secure transcription
- Oral rehearsal
- Simple sentence construction
Motor memory of writing
If we don’t secure this, nothing else will stick.
Year 2: Learning to control sentences for meaning
This is the year of deliberate writing decisions:
- Expanding sentences
- Basic cohesion
- Purposeful vocabulary
- Consistent punctuation
- Short paragraphs
- Redrafting simple elements
Writing with increasing fluency
Breadth is not the priority. Control is.
Year 3: Learning to build coherent sequences of ideas
Often, breadth accelerates too quickly at this stage. Year 3 should be a bridge:
- Developing grammatical range
- Linking sentences into coherent sections
- Shaping writing for audience and purpose
- Understanding the writer-reader relationship
- Building stamina
Embedding planning, rehearsal and improvement routines
Year 3 is not “KS2 lite”. It is the final year of foundational writing development – and the most decisive for long-term equity.
This is a moral imperative
Depth-first writing is not conservative. It is not limiting or “low expectation.” It is the opposite.
Foundations are protective. They are the mechanism through which disadvantaged pupils gain access, agency and voice.
Ambition is not breadth. It’s access, precision and clarity. Breadth is vital – but premature breadth widens the gap every time.
10 inclusive ways to secure foundations in KS1 & Year 3
Strip KS1 genre coverage back to essentials
Three or four genres taught deeply is more powerful than 6–10 taught superficially.
Use sentence construction as the spine of Y1–3
Model, say aloud, rehearse, improve, rebuild. This is the engine of equity.
Make oral rehearsal non-negotiable
If they can’t say it with control, they can’t write it with control.
Prioritise transcription accuracy early
Not as neatness policing, but to reduce cognitive load.
Teach grammar in context, not isolation
Grammar → purpose → effect. Never grammar → worksheet → forgetting.
Build fluency through micro-writing
One brilliant sentence, one improved sentence, one precise paragraph.
Use shared and modelled writing daily in Y1-2
This should be non-negotiable. It’s the clearest path to independence.
Focus on vocabulary access, not display
No more lists stuck on the wall. Teach words in context, practise aloud, use purposefully.
Ask this question in every planning meeting
“What will our least confident writer need in this lesson?”
Treat Year 3 as the hinge year
Make it the strongest year for sentence consolidation, paragraph clarity, stamina, vocabulary depth, grammar and structured drafting and redrafting.
How Leading English can help
At Leading English, we help schools build writing curriculums that prioritise clarity, depth and inclusion. Our materials secure:
- Precise sentence instruction
- Grammar taught in context
- Models that build control, not complexity
- Micro-writing routines
- Clear progression from Y1 to Y6
- Structures that protect access for disadvantaged pupils
Depth before breadth is not a preference. It is an equity promise. Let’s make sure every pupil can thrive because the foundations are strong.
