Tim led the expert panel and was lead drafter of the DfE's Writing Framework and is currently a DfE RISE Advisor. He was previously Executive Director of Primary Education for STEP Academy Trust and helped build the Trust into one of the highest performing in the primary sector. His doctoral study focused on teaching phonics in KS2 with the published research building on the growing understanding of 'decoding threshold' - how much phonics is enough phonics. He is a visiting professor at the University of Coventry and has published a number of academic peer-reviewed papers. Prior to working in education, Tim was a feature writer for the London Evening Standard, wrote the award-winning Channel 4 short film 'Sunny Spells' and in 1985 was booed off stage at London's Comedy Store. Clare Sealy works as head of education improvement for the States of Guernsey. Previously she was a primary headteacher for over 22 years in Tower Hamlets, East London. During the latter part of that time, she also worked on a consultancy basis as a school improvement partner.Clare writes about curriculum, assessment and pedagogy. She was a member of the Ofsted reference group for curriculum, teaching and assessment, having also previously been on the Ofsted reference group for maths. She was part of the sector panel for the recently published DfE Writing Framework and was previously on the DfE panel for the revised Early Learning Goals. In 2018 she was named by the TES as one of the ten most influential people in education and in 2022 she received an OBE for services to education.

This book starts with the simple but enormously important insight that writing is hard - one of the most cognitively challenging tasks we teach children. From that basic premise flow so many implications which are explored brilliantly in this book. Progress depends on secure sentence structures, fluent transcription, and sustained practice. The authors make a compelling case for building writing capacity gradually, focussing on the fundamentals so that pupils are not overwhelmed, and so that self-expression can emerge from growing competence.

Tim led the expert panel and was lead drafter of the DfE's Writing Framework and is currently a DfE RISE Advisor. He was previously Executive Director of Primary Education for STEP Academy Trust and helped build the Trust into one of the highest performing in the primary sector. His doctoral study focused on teaching phonics in KS2 with the published research building on the growing understanding of 'decoding threshold' - how much phonics is enough phonics. He is a visiting professor at the University of Coventry and has published a number of academic peer-reviewed papers. Prior to working in education, Tim was a feature writer for the London Evening Standard, wrote the award-winning Channel 4 short film 'Sunny Spells' and in 1985 was booed off stage at London's Comedy Store. Clare Sealy works as head of education improvement for the States of Guernsey. Previously she was a primary headteacher for over 22 years in Tower Hamlets, East London. During the latter part of that time, she also worked on a consultancy basis as a school improvement partner.Clare writes about curriculum, assessment and pedagogy. She was a member of the Ofsted reference group for curriculum, teaching and assessment, having also previously been on the Ofsted reference group for maths. She was part of the sector panel for the recently published DfE Writing Framework and was previously on the DfE panel for the revised Early Learning Goals. In 2018 she was named by the TES as one of the ten most influential people in education and in 2022 she received an OBE for services to education.

This book starts with the simple but enormously important insight that writing is hard - one of the most cognitively challenging tasks we teach children. From that basic premise flow so many implications which are explored brilliantly in this book. Progress depends on secure sentence structures, fluent transcription, and sustained practice. The authors make a compelling case for building writing capacity gradually, focussing on the fundamentals so that pupils are not overwhelmed, and so that self-expression can emerge from growing competence.