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Ready, Steady, Write - Literacy Counts

Oakwood Primary Academy implemented the Ready Steady Write approach to teaching English from September 2024.  Below are more details about what this approach entails and why we adopted it. 

Read Steady Write empowers teachers to provide high-quality teaching of writing through children’s high-quality literature (Vehicle Texts). The units of work centre on engaging, vocabulary-rich texts, with a wealth of writing opportunities.   

  • Clear Sequential Episodes of Learning
  • Example Texts 
  • Learning Objectives that link to the teaching sequence (Immerse, Analyse, Plan Write) 
  • Vocabulary Learning
  • Contextualised Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation
  • Writer’s Knowledge Linked to National Standards
  • Sentence Accuracy Work Linked to National Standards
  • Progressions Documents with Year Group Expectations
  • Reflecting on Unit Outcomes: Planning for Next Steps
  • Example Planning Format
  • Wider Reading for the Wider Curriculum
  • A Wealth of Resources Linked to the National Standards
  • Explicit Links to the National Curriculum
RSW year group progression document
Writing Curriculum Subject Statement
Pen Licence

What is a Pen Licence?

Children can work towards earning a Pen Licence when they can write in a fluent and cursive joined handwriting style. The Pen Licence is awarded by the Head of School or Assistant Head of School in a celebration assembly.

Children must be able to:
  • Join correctly using the cursive style taught.
  • Keep letters a consistent size.
  • Ensure that all ascenders and descenders are correct.
  • Remember to join handwriting consistently over a period of time and not just in one piece of work.
Please see the Handwriting Expectations from the National Curriculum in the documents below for further information and guidance. If you have any questions about handwriting please don’t hesitate to talk with your child’s class teacher.

Handwriting

At Oakwood we have introduced a cursive style to teach handwriting which helps to develop a fluent style of handwriting.

The National Curriculum 2014 for English states that:

“Joined handwriting should be the norm; pupils should be able to use it fast enough to keep pace with what they want to say.”