Scientific writing is a core disciplinary skill, yet many students struggle to express their understanding clearly and accurately. This session focuses on how departments can build writing successfully over time, rather than addressing it reactively at GCSE.
Participants will explore how careful curriculum sequencing ensures that students develop the knowledge, vocabulary, and structures needed before being asked to write extended responses. The session will consider how writing can be built progressively, moving from oral rehearsal to structured written outcomes.
A central focus will be the role of oracy. Delegates will examine how structured talk, including the use of sentence stems, purposeful questioning, and guided discussion, supports students to clarify their thinking and practise disciplinary language before writing. The importance of consistent routines across a department will be emphasised to ensure coherence for students.
The session will also explore how scaffolds can be used effectively within modelling. Rather than being treated as standalone supports, tools such as writing frames, exemplars, and success criteria will be examined as part of an explicit teaching process. Participants will consider how these scaffolds can be introduced, modelled, and gradually removed to support independence without reducing challenge.
Throughout, there will be a strong emphasis on aligning approaches across Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 to ensure that students are prepared for the demands of GCSE.
Outcomes By the end of the session, participants will be able to: •Explain how scientific writing can be developed progressively through curriculum sequencing •Identify effective strategies for embedding oracy to support disciplinary writing •Use scaffolds purposefully within modelling to support students’ written responses •Recognise how to build consistency in approaches to writing across a department •Take practical next steps to improve students’ confidence and accuracy in scientific writing
Background: In my current role, I work with a wide range of schools, often in areas of high deprivation, where scientific writing is frequently identified as a key barrier to success at Key Stage 4. A common challenge is that writing is addressed too late, rather than being deliberately developed across Key Stage 3. I have developed and delivered CPD on scientific writing through Ark Curriculum Plus, working with partner schools to embed disciplinary literacy within science curricula. This builds on over ten years of classroom experience teaching science in diverse contexts. My approach draws on this work with departments, supporting both leaders and teachers to align curriculum sequencing, pedagogy, and assessment to improve students’ written responses.
