Exploring the DfE Writing Framework 2025
The DfE’s Writing Framework, published in July 2025, provides evidence-based guidance on enhancing writing instruction from Reception through to Key Stage 2. It aims to help schools meet National Curriculum expectations and foster a love of writing among pupils. In this session, Ross Young will provide an overview of the framework’s key components, followed by critique and reflections. There will also be ample opportunity for questions and discussion.
Ross Young is the founder of The Writing For Pleasure Centre and co-author of How To Teach Writing; Writing For Pleasure: Theory, Research & Practice; The Science Of Teaching Primary Writing; Motivating Writing Teaching and Getting Children Up & Running As Writers: Lessons For EYFS-KS1 Teachers.
He is a PhD researcher with the National Literacy Trust at the University Of Edinburgh’s Literacy Lab, investigating the writing lives of children and young people. He also holds a master’s degree in applied linguistics in education.
As a passionate writer-teacher, Ross now works across the UK and internationally, helping teachers and schools develop extraordinary young writers.
He helps convene The United Kingdom Literacy Association’s Teaching Writing Special Interest Research Group.
Ross was the lead researcher on ‘What is it Writing For Pleasure teachers do that makes the difference?’ He has advised the Department for Education in England, the National Literacy Trust and Education Scotland. His work continues to focus on the learning and teaching of young writers and is informed by his ongoing collaboration with classroom teachers and early years educators.
Date: Monday 13th October
Time: 4.00 pm to 5.30pm
Location: online
Cost: Members plus one guest free. Non-members £5
Please book through Eventbrite: here
NAAE Roundtable – The DfE Writing Framework with Ellen Counter
Following our successful round table events last year, we are delighted to host our first discussion of 2025-26 in partnership with Ellen Counter, Deputy Lead Adviser for Primary English at HfL Education.
Ellen will open the event with a concise overview, setting the stage for discussions in relation to the DfE Writing Framework. Her insights will focus on unpicking some key threads from the Framework, considering positive aspects and areas which may be under-represented or open to misinterpretation. This introduction will act as a springboard for our subsequent dialogue, encouraging participants to explore how as strategic leads and advisers, we might mediate key messages from the DfE Writing Framework and support the schools we work with.
Our roundtable events are exclusively for NAAE members and their registered guests. We hope you can join us for this informal professional dialogue.
Date: Monday 29th September
Time: 4.00 pm to 5.30pm
Location: online
Cost: Members plus one guest free.
Please book through Eventbrite: here
NAAE and English Association roundtable discussion
An invitation to NAAE members to join us for an informal professional dialogue around the current landscape
Following our first successful round table event in January, we are delighted to host another discussion in partnership with Dr Becky Fisher and Professor Robert Eaglestone from the English Association.
Becky and Bob will open the event with a concise overview, setting the stage for discussions. Their insights will frame the key priorities for English education, providing valuable context to the CAR interim report and its implications for deeper subject exploration. This introduction will act as a springboard for the subsequent dialogue, encouraging participants to engage meaningfully with the evolving educational landscape and to share their aspirations for the future of English education.
Once again we’d like to invite NAAE members and their registered guests to join us for this informal professional dialogue. We hope you can join us.
Date: Tuesday 1st July
Time: 4.00 pm to 5.15pm
Location: online
Cost: Members plus one guest free.
Please book through Eventbrite here
Returning to Non-Fiction reading in English – an update
An update on some of the threads emerging from the work of a joint project between Just Imagine and NAAE.
In March 2024, Nikki facilitated a NAAE webinar, ‘Rethinking Non-Fiction and Progression in Reading’ out of which grew a joint project between Just Imagine and NAAE. As a group of English specialists, we’ve been exploring the range of children’s non-fiction, considering how great texts might be woven into the rich tapestry of reading that children encounter in English lessons. A year into our research and investigation, we are delighted to share an update on our journey and some of the threads emerging from our work.
We’ll consider some key questions:
· How can we be ambitious and discerning in our choice of non-fiction texts within the English curriculum?
· How can we make the best use of “intelligent interdisciplinarity”, building on children’s subject knowledge, whilst maintaining the integrity of English as a distinct subject?
· How might we effectively teach reading non-fiction so that children learn about the author’s craft?
This webinar will be co-facilitated by Nikki Gamble and members of the project team.
Date: Saturday 17th May
Time: 10.30am to 11.45 am
Location: online
Cost: Members plus one guest free. Non-members £5
Please book through Eventbrite here
NAAE is 40!
Celebrate with us at a special online conference with Geoff Barton and Professor Teresa Cremin
We are thrilled that longtime friends of NAAE, Professor Teresa Cremin and Geoff Barton, will be our keynote speakers for this extra-special event. Both Teresa and Geoff will also participate in a plenary panel discussion, responding to questions and comments from delegates.
Teresa Cremin – Nurturing readers: Enabling involvement
Drawing on an understanding of reading as social, affective and relational, Teresa will highlight the motivating power of low key reading conversations and connections. Offering examples to illuminate her argument, she will argue motivation is malleable, explore both individual and social approaches to nurturing young readers and stress the marked significance of authentic and responsive adult and child involvement.
Teresa Cremin is Professor of Education (Literacy) at The Open University, UK, and co-Director of the Literacy and Social Justice Centre. An ex-teacher and teacher trainer, Teresa is a Fellow of the English Association, the Academy of Social Sciences, the Royal Society of the Arts, is on the Board of The Reading Agency, and works with the DfE on reading for pleasure. She has published over 30 books, including a forthcoming edited collection Reading for Pleasure: International Perspectives with S. McGeown (Routledge, 2025). Teresa’s research focuses on volitional reading and writing, teachers’ and children’s literate identities and creative pedagogies. She is passionate about social justice and in seeking to challenge educational inequities, leads the OU’s research and practice coalition to support the development of children’s volitional reading https://ourfp.org/
Geoff Barton – MEGA (Making English Great Again!): Where are we? Where do we go next? And how?
In this session Geoff Barton will reflect on some of the challenges that have led to an apparent marginalisation of English in the curriculum. But what are the opportunities … and how might we seize them? With particular reference to the recommendations of the Oracy Education Commission, Geoff will explore how principles can be translated into the practice of reclaiming our subject, on behalf of young people, teachers, and wider society.
Geoff Barton was an English teacher for 32 years, including 15 as headteacher at a Suffolk comprehensive school. He became General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders in 2017, leading 25,000 of the UK’s education leaders, until April 2024. He is now a trustee of the Royal Shakespeare Company and chair of the Oracy Education Commission. He was awarded the CBE in the 2025 New Year’s honours list.
Date: Saturday 1st March
Time: 10am to 12.45pm
Location: online
Cost: Members free (no complimentary guest tickets). Non-members £15
Please book through Eventbrite here
NAAE and English Association roundtable discussion
An invitation to NAAE members to join us for an informal professional dialogue around the current landscape.
Nationally and internationally we are in a time of change and it is VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous). Whilst there are concerns and issues there are also opportunities and optimism. In the realm of English education, we at NAAE have been collaborating with a range of partners as part of the Common English Forum, and in the summer of 2024 published ‘A Manifesto for English.’ This document was our attempt to draw together what we championed as evidence-informed principles and practice for English education from Early Years to degree level and ITE.
Since then the new UK government commissioned a Curriculum and Assessment Review and a call for evidence took place in November 2024. As we await publication of the CAR’s interim report, we think this is a good time to reflect on the current landscape of English education and our hopes for its future.
We’d like to invite NAAE members to join us for an informal professional dialogue around the current landscape, some of the key priorities for English and looking ahead to more positive horizons…ever the optimist!
We are delighted to be joined by Dr Becky Fisher and Professor Robert Eaglestone from the English Association for this roundtable discussion. We will share a brief summary of perspectives from them and the NAAE Committee and an opportunity to discuss and network with colleagues in smaller groups.
This is a special event for NAAE members and their registered guests only. We hope you can join us.
Date: Thursday 30th January
Time: 4pm to 5.30pm
Location: online
Cost: Members plus one guest free.
Please book through Eventbrite here