Ready Steady Write at Brownmead Academy, Birmingham.
C.Canny is the Year 6 teacher and English Subject Lead at Brownmead Academy, Birmingham. A focus area for her school was to improve outcomes in writing following their end of year data. From this, the school contacted Literacy Counts as they had heard that Ready Steady Write was a research informed scheme which was centered around high-quality texts. C.Canny has been very happy with the increased staff and pupil engagement following the implementation of Ready Steady Write.
“We have found Ready Steady Write to be a great resource. I am very happy there is now consistency across the whole school. For us, one of our focus areas was to make sure our writing Working Walls were purposeful. Beforehand, staff didn’t feel like they had the time or content required to create a quality working wall. This meant the children were not using them to aid their writing. Since implementing Ready Steady Write, Working Walls are now much more purposeful. Staff are now feeling more creative and excited to make their Working Walls! As the materials we now add to the Working Walls are created during the Ready Steady Write lesson, there is no added workload for staff and the children are already familiar and confident with the contents. Our children can now explain and use what is on the working wall. They use it frequently as they move through the units. Another positive impact on learning is how the units include the spelling, punctuation and grammar appropriate to their year group, but within the context of their vehicle text. All this is also added to the Working Walls.
Another element of consistency that Ready Steady Write has provided for us is that we can be confident in knowing that all our children are getting the same literacy diet. Each class receives high quality lessons with the same learning outcomes. This starts all the way down in EYFS. Before, our EYFS would be using a separate scheme, now our EYFS team feel included and working towards the same writing goals. Our staff are now much more engaged and confident with teaching their writing lessons. The time saved using this digital membership means our teachers have more time to make those few adaptations needed to suit the exact needs of our children. Ready Steady Write is suitable for both newer and more experienced teachers. This positive attitude towards writing from our staff and children has been great to see.
Some of the aspects that made us keen to use Ready Steady Write were: the beautiful vehicle texts chosen, the ease of using the digital membership and the quality of the resources included in each unit. Lots of the vehicle texts were brand new stories and authors to our staff and children. This meant both staff and children were hooked on the book from the first Immerse lesson and this engagement lasted the whole unit. It is great to see our children so engrossed in their writing lessons. We found that throughout the unit, children were building to become mini experts around that vehicle text and writing outcome. Having all that knowledge and context made them keen and eager to write.
Having so many digital resources for each scheme has really helped with our teacher workload. For example, my Year 6 class are currently on their Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species unit, and it has been brilliant having the soundscapes and galleries all provided and ready to go. As expected, our children have not been able to experience the settings mentioned in the vehicle text themselves, so being able to share these digital and immersive resources really engages them.
For our children, they now have more of a routine and clearer expectations of what is expected in their writing lessons. Through Ready Steady Write, our teachers have the chance to pick and choose certain elements from the daily lesson plans and adapt to any specific needs. There are lots of opportunities for differentiation. A particular resource that has been extremely beneficial for our children are the vocabulary and phrase mats included in each unit. The pictures included mean that children learn and use ambitious vocabulary that before they wouldn’t have attempted to use. The children have access to these word and phrase mats themselves and are frequently using them throughout the unit. From our training on this resource, our main take-away was the ethos that ‘every child is a writer’, and we have found that this is truly possible in every classroom with Ready Steady Write. There are so many visuals included across the digital membership that act as writing aids that really benefit our lowest 20% of children.
The cost of Ready Steady Write works well for our schools and has not been a strain on our literacy budget. We are very happy with what is included, and we shall continue to be a part of the Ready Steady Write membership.
In summary, we are extremely pleased with Ready Steady Write. Our staff are much more engaged. Their workload has been reduced significantly and they are now excited and ambitious with their teaching, Working Walls and displays. We have seen higher levels of engagement and enthusiasm from our children too which has directly resulted in higher quality writing outcomes. Our writing lessons are now more inclusive, and we are pleased that all children can achieve. We are extremely pleased with the successes seen while using Ready Steady Write and we look forward to continuing to use this resource and work closely with Literacy Counts.
Thank you.”
-C.Canny, Year 6 teacher and English Subject Lead
