Writing is one of the most complex things we ask students to do.
It draws on language, memory, attention, motor skills, confidence and creativity, often all at once. When any one of those demands becomes a barrier, a student may have plenty to say but still struggle to get started, sustain their writing or show what they know.
The Inclusive Mainstream Fund gives schools a timely opportunity to look more closely at these barriers and strengthen the support available through everyday teaching.
For schools where access to writing is an identified priority, Pobble can form part of a practical, whole-school approach to adaptive writing provision.
The Inclusive Mainstream Fund provides additional funding for mainstream state-funded schools in England to improve inclusion for students with SEND and other commonly occurring needs.
Schools must publish an inclusion strategy by 31 December 2026, identifying the barriers experienced by their students, the activities they plan to fund and the intended outcomes.
The Department for Education guidance encourages schools to focus on a small number of evidence-informed approaches that can be implemented well. High-quality adaptive teaching is a central priority, alongside early support that helps address emerging needs before barriers become more established.
For many schools, writing will be an important part of that conversation.
Difficulty with writing is not always caused by a lack of ideas, ability or effort.
The blank page can expose a wide range of overlapping barriers. A student may find it difficult to organise their thoughts, retrieve the right vocabulary, hold a sentence in their working memory or physically record their ideas. Others may struggle with attention, processing, sensory overload, perfectionism, anxiety or limited writing stamina.
These barriers can affect students with and without a formal diagnosis. They may be particularly noticeable among students with SEND, students learning English as an additional language, those with lower prior attainment and children who have come to see themselves as reluctant or unsuccessful writers.
Removing barriers does not mean lowering expectations or creating a separate lesson for every student. It means understanding what is getting in the way and changing the route into the learning.
Here are some practical ways schools can make writing more accessible.
A blank page asks a student to generate everything from nothing. A shared image provides an immediate point of entry.
Students can notice details, make predictions, ask questions and begin gathering ideas before they are expected to write. This can be particularly helpful for students who find it difficult to generate ideas independently or interpret an abstract writing task.
Pobble’s visual prompts can be used with simple discussion routines such as “I can see, I think, I wonder”. This reduces the pressure to produce an immediate written response and gives students a chance to build ideas collectively first.
Oral rehearsal helps students organise their ideas, explore vocabulary and hear how a sentence sounds before committing it to paper.
Paired discussion, collaborative storytelling, role play and conversation stations can all provide valuable thinking time. They give students an opportunity to try out their ideas in a lower-pressure format and learn from the language used by others.
At Richmond Academy, teachers began using Pobble 365 images in EYFS classes during snack times and at 'conversation stations' to stimulate talk. The approach then grew across the school, with regular image-led discussions supporting vocabulary and writing from Early Years to Year 6.
Adaptive teaching is not about creating a completely different lesson for every student. It is about maintaining high expectations while providing different levels of support and challenge.
Pobble school subscriptions include Easier, Original and Harder versions of every writing prompt. This means students can share the same stimulus and classroom discussion while accessing a version of the activity that better reflects their starting point.
Sentence starters, questions, modelled sentences and word banks can also reduce the cognitive load involved in beginning a piece of writing. Because Pobble resources are editable, teachers can adjust the instructions, vocabulary, layout or level of support to suit their own students.
The aim is not to remove every challenge. It is to remove unnecessary barriers so that more students can take part.
Students cannot confidently use words they have not had the opportunity to explore.
Pre-teaching vocabulary, creating word banks together and returning to useful language throughout the week gives students something concrete to draw on when they write.
Word banks can support vocabulary choice and spelling while reducing reliance on repeated adult prompting. They can also be adapted to reflect a particular topic, curriculum area or group of students.
Visual prompts provide a useful context for this work. Rather than learning words in isolation, students can connect new vocabulary to something they can see, discuss and use in their own sentences.
For students who associate writing with struggle or failure, another extended task can reinforce the barrier.
Short, frequent opportunities to write can help students build fluency, confidence and stamina without the pressure of producing a polished final piece every time.
This might be a five-minute response to an image, one carefully constructed sentence, a description of a character or a quick continuation of a story starter.
Pobble’s daily prompts and Quick Writes make these routines easy to repeat without adding significantly to planning. Over time, teachers can look for changes in how readily students begin, how long they sustain their writing and how much support they need.
Inclusive writing provision should make different forms of progress visible.
For one student, progress might mean writing for longer. For another, it could be beginning independently, using a newly taught word, contributing an idea during discussion or becoming less anxious about making mistakes.
Sharing and celebrating writing gives students a real audience and helps them begin to see themselves as writers. It also reminds the wider school community that successful writing does not always look the same for every child.
Inclusive writing is most effective when it is part of everyday classroom practice, rather than something offered only through a separate intervention.
Pobble works alongside a school’s existing curriculum and writing approach. It is not a writing scheme or a specialist SEND intervention. Instead, it gives teachers flexible resources they can use and adapt within the provision already in place.
A school subscription gives teachers, teaching assistants and supply colleagues access to the same bank of prompts, differentiated activities, Topic Lessons and Quick Writes.
This can help schools establish a small number of shared routines, such as:
These are manageable changes that can strengthen the universal offer for everyone while providing additional support for students who experience barriers to writing.
They also help create greater consistency between classes without expecting every teacher to deliver writing in exactly the same way.
Where a school has identified barriers relating to writing participation, vocabulary, confidence, independence or access to appropriately supported tasks, Pobble can form part of its planned activity under the IMF principle of high-quality adaptive teaching.
For example, a school might use Pobble to introduce a consistent approach to visual discussion and oral rehearsal, strengthen vocabulary support across year groups or provide regular, appropriately scaffolded opportunities for students to develop writing confidence and independence.
Schools can monitor the difference using measures they already have available. These might include participation and completion, writing samples, student voice, writing stamina, use of taught vocabulary or the amount of adult prompting required.
Each school will need to connect its spending to the barriers identified within its own student community and explain the outcomes it hopes to achieve. The strongest approach is therefore to be clear about the need, introduce a deliberate change to provision and decide from the beginning how its impact will be reviewed.
Want a quick summary to share with your team?
Download our one-page guide to see how Pobble can support inclusive writing and high-quality adaptive teaching as part of your school’s Inclusive Mainstream Fund strategy.
Inclusive writing provision does not have to mean producing more plans, more worksheets or a separate intervention for every need.
It starts with understanding what gets in the way and giving teachers practical ways to respond.
Pobble provides ready-made inspiration, built-in differentiation and flexible scaffolding that can help schools create a more consistent approach to writing while working alongside the curriculum already in place.
Find out more about Pobble for schools and start a four-week whole-school trial