SHINE Sunderland writing project helping more pupils build strong foundations for GCSE English

Alongside the classroom intervention, the team has begun developing an innovative diagnostic tool that automatically assesses pupils’ writing, helping teachers identify specific barriers and tailor support more effectively.

After its first full year of delivery, the project is demonstrating promising early impact for pupils while laying the foundations for wider adoption across Sunderland schools.

Impact highlights

• 498 pupils have completed the project’s diagnostic assessment, with 60 pupils receiving the targeted Roots to Writing intervention.
• 83% of disadvantaged pupils receiving the intervention met the project’s “Strong Foundations” writing standard at retest, compared with 24.4% of disadvantaged pupils who did not receive the intervention.
• Among pupils with SEND, 50% receiving the intervention met the standard, compared with 18% of those who did not.
• Across all pupils, 46.7% of those receiving the intervention met the writing standard at retest, compared with 34% of pupils who did not receive the intervention.
• The project has successfully developed an automated diagnostic assessment tool, now at a minimum viable product stage and is ready to support rollout to additional schools.

Roots to Writing was designed around a simple principle: pupils are more likely to become confident writers when teaching begins with an accurate understanding of their needs.

The project’s diagnostic assessment identifies specific barriers to writing, from sentence construction to whole-text organisation, allowing teachers to provide targeted support through carefully sequenced writing activities rooted in familiar local contexts.

The evaluation compared pupils who received the intervention with similar pupils who did not.

Across the whole cohort, pupils who participated in Roots to Writing were more likely to reach the project’s “Strong Foundations” benchmark when reassessed six months later.

The strongest improvements were seen among disadvantaged pupils. While 24.4% of disadvantaged pupils who did not receive the intervention met the benchmark at retest, this rose significantly to 83% for those who participated in Roots to Writing.

The project also showed particularly encouraging results for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), where the proportion meeting the benchmark increased from 18% without intervention to 50% among pupils who took part.

The project team concludes that these early findings provide encouraging evidence that the intervention is having the greatest impact among the pupils it was designed to support.

Alongside improvements in writing, the project has generated strong engagement from pupils.

Teachers report that pupils produce a full page of writing during every intervention lesson – considerably more than originally anticipated – and that behaviour during sessions is noticeably positive.

The report notes that “numbers of negative consequences are much lower in intervention groups than for the same students in their other classes”. Students have also informally reported that they enjoy the sessions, a view shared by teaching staff.

Overall, the project team described engagement as “better than expected”, highlighting not only the volume of writing produced but also the wider influence the approach is already having on English teaching beyond the intervention itself.

A key feature of Roots to Writing is the development of its diagnostic software.

During the year, the team transformed the assessment from an initial concept into a working digital tool capable of automatically scanning and marking pupils’ writing.

Although refining and debugging the software remains an ongoing task, the report describes the diagnostic as having become “far more successful than we hoped”, supported by additional funding from SHINE Sunderland to continue its development.

Staffing challenges during the early stages of the project also led to an unexpected benefit.

Rather than relying on a single member of staff, the intervention was delivered by several teachers and a higher-level teaching assistant. Internal evaluation found that, by the end of the year, delivery was consistent across all four practitioners, increasing the programme’s resilience and sustainability.

The project is already influencing teaching beyond the pupils directly involved.

The structured approach developed through Roots to Writing has been adopted more widely within Southmoor Academy’s English department, including at GCSE level.

The report explains that the project’s narrative planning approach is now being used to teach GCSE English Language, where internal school data suggests improvements among pupils who had previously struggled with creative writing tasks.

Reflecting on the wider impact, the team wrote in the end-of-year report: “We now approach the teaching of writing much more systematically, and we can see the impact on our students.”

Looking ahead

Following its successful first year, Roots to Writing is preparing to expand.

The intervention has already been introduced into a second school, with additional schools scheduled to join.

Meanwhile, the diagnostic software is expected to become a sustainable part of the model, allowing schools to use the assessment while supporting future development through licensing arrangements.

The project has also attracted interest beyond Sunderland, with links established with the Department for Education and AQA, while learning from Roots to Writing is already informing Southmoor Academy’s newly funded Roots to Learning project.

Although further evaluation will strengthen the evidence base, the first year’s findings present an encouraging picture.