Show Notes
🎧 The Leadership Lens
Early Writing, Strong Foundations, and the Writing Framework
In this episode of The Leadership Lens, we focus on one of the most important — and often least secure — areas of curriculum practice: early writing.
Following the publication of the DfE Writing Framework (July 2025) by the Department for Education, this episode explores what the guidance really means for schools, how it aligns with Strong Foundations in the First Years, and why writing success must be engineered deliberately, not left to chance.
While many schools have made significant gains in early reading, national evidence shows that early writing has not always benefitted from the same level of clarity, sequencing, or staff confidence.
This episode unpacks how schools can address that gap — from Early Years through Key Stage 1 — by focusing on transcription, cognitive load, and high-quality teaching routines.
In this episode, we explore:
Why writing places a uniquely high demand on working memory — and what that means for teaching
The difference between oral composition and transcription, and why they must be taught separately at first
What children really need before they are ready to write — including communication, language, and physical development
Why pencil grip, posture, and letter formation must be explicitly taught and corrected
The role of daily handwriting practice beyond phonics lessons
Why dictation is the writing equivalent of decodable books
Common misconceptions around emergent writing and mark-making
What the Early Learning Goal for writing actually requires — and what it doesn’t
How transcription develops from Reception through Year 2 and beyond
Why consistent adult subject knowledge in handwriting and spelling matters at every stage
This episode is particularly relevant for:
Headteachers and senior leaders
English and Early Years leaders
Teachers, teaching assistants, and support staff
Trust leaders responsible for curriculum coherence and staff development
💡 Premium Membership: Supporting Whole-School Understanding
Premium members receive two full staff-ready CPD presentations, each with complete training scripts, designed to be delivered to entire staff teams.
These resources are carefully pitched so that:
Staff can see how early foundations link directly to later writing confidence and fluency
Schools develop a common language and shared understanding from Early Years through Key Stage 2
Premium resources included with this episode:
The Writing Framework – What It Means for Schools (full presentation + script)
Strong Foundations in Early Writing (full presentation + script)
Together, these support staff to understand how strong early writing foundations enable pupils to progress confidently throughout their entire school journey — not just in Reception, but right through to Key Stage 2 and beyond.
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Premium membership is £11 per month and provides access to a growing CPD library of around 28 in-depth podcast episodes, covering:
Curriculum development and design
Evidence-informed professional development
The Ofsted renewed framework
IDSR - How to interpret it!
Safeguarding and behaviour
Personal development and wider curriculum leadership
It is designed as a practical, on-demand CPD bank — something you can return to at any point, whether for personal development, leadership reflection, or staff training.
👉 Premium membership sign-up link: https://the-leadership-lens.mykajabi.com/premium-membership
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I Thought We Had Our Personal Development Offer Sorted… Then I Properly Looked at It
In last week’s episode, I explored why so many school development plans don’t quite do what we hope they will. We looked at the idea that we often focus too heavily on goals, rather than the day-to-day systems and habits that actually drive change in schools. We also reframed the starting point for planning away from “what do we want to achieve?” and towards “what are our persistent problems?” This week builds directly on that thinking. Because once you’ve identified your persistent problems, the next step is deciding what to do about them. That’s the moment where most plans either become genuinely powerful… or quietly fall apart. In this episode, I introduce the concept of premortems, a simple but incredibly powerful way of strengthening your school improvement plans before you implement them. Rather than waiting to evaluate something after it hasn’t worked, a premortem asks you to imagine that your plan has already failed, and then work backwards to understand why. It sounds uncomfortable, and it is, but that discomfort is exactly where the insight sits. In this episode, I explore: Why we tend to move too quickly from identifying problems to implementing solutions What a premortem is and where it comes from How premortems create space for honest, risk-aware thinking within leadership teams A step-by-step walkthrough of how to run a premortem effectively in your school A detailed school-based example focused on improving reading fluency in lower KS2 Three non-examples of premortems that look right on the surface but fail in practice — and what goes wrong in each case How to use premortems to strengthen your school development plan before it reaches the classroom 🧠 Key takeaway Identifying the right problem is only half the work. Designing the right response, and properly stress-testing that response before you implement it, is where school improvement either succeeds or quietly falls apart. Premortems help you do exactly that. 💡 Premium Membership If you want to take this straight into your own setting, this week’s premium resource is designed to do exactly that. As a premium member, you’ll receive: A full slide deck that walks you step-by-step through the premortem framework Clear guidance on how to structure and facilitate the session with your team A resource you can use immediately in SLT meetings or wider leadership discussions Premium membership also gives you access to the full back catalogue of 36 episodes, each with accompanying resources including: Training scripts Slide decks School development frameworks Practical tools you can use straight away Topics covered include safeguarding, behaviour, personal development, curriculum design, retrieval practice, alternative provision, and much more. 👉 You can join here: https://the-leadership-lens.mykajabi.com/premium-membership It’s £11 per month, and each week you’ll receive a resource linked directly to the episode, designed to support your work as a school leader in a practical, usable way.