There’s something truly special about Early Years – the joy, the curiosity, the creativity. At Feniscowles Primary School in Blackburn, that magic is in full force. Bex Noon and Colette Mullally, the dynamic teaching duo known as the EYFS Sisters (@eyfssisters), are leading the way alongside the brilliant Gemma Deane and Annabel Whalley. Regular champions of Ready Steady Write on their Instagram page, Bex and Colette consistently share their joyful, creative and highly effective approaches to bringing each unit to life across their provision and curriculum.

To find out more about their journey and the impact having an EYFS specific consultancy day, Louise Robinson, our EYFS specialist consultant, and Olivia Monks, our Marketing & Social Media Executive and former EYFS teacher, caught up with Bex, Colette and Carley Dootson (Deputy Headteacher at Feniscowles) for a video call. Together, they reflected on the implementation of Ready Steady Write in their setting, the impact it’s had on staff and children, and what advice they’d offer to other schools.

Here’s what they shared.

Confident Classrooms, Inspired Learners

The team shared how confident they feel delivering literacy lessons thanks to Ready Steady Write – including during observations. “Sometimes observations can feel stressful,” they explained, “but with our Ready Steady Write lessons, we just did what we always do. It’s so effortless to pick up where we left off.” That confidence extends to the children. “Despite being our youngest writers, the children understand the Ready Steady Write routine. They’re now used to it, they know what’s coming next and they’re thriving within that structure.”

Their enthusiasm for the resource is mirrored in the children and families. “They ask to do literacy,” said Bex and Colette. “After a recent assembly, one child asked, ‘Can we do our literacy now?’ They know the vocabulary, the sequence and how to use learning from earlier in the unit to support their writing. It’s great!” The children’s joy is evident – they speak the language of the scheme with confidence and familiarity, and they are proud of their progress. Parents frequently message on Class Dojo to share how excited their children are to talk about what they’ve learned.“We’re not just seeing impact in the lesson,” the team added. “Children are using the vocabulary and sentence structures across the provision and in their play.”

Story Songs, Story Friends and a Show!

The current unit at Feniscowles is Little Red, and the team couldn’t be more enthusiastic. “We LOVE it!” Bex and Colette told us. “We’ve even performed a show for parents and carers using the Story Song and Story Friends. It was amazing for families to see the structure and language the children experience in the classroom.”

Far more than a performance, the show helped bridge the gap between school and home. “Now, parents understand how we use the Story Friends and the structure behind the writing. It’s not just sitting and writing – children are fully immersed in the learning, and that creates the perfect opportunity for meaningful writing.”

Planning Support That Delivers Results

Carley Dootson, Deputy Headteacher, described their initial decision to invest in Ready Steady Write:

“It was a tricky decision for us as we’d already spent several thousands of pounds on another scheme (and all the supporting resources over the last two financial and academic years) but we weren’t getting the full outcomes we wanted. The children weren’t evidencing those more technical aspects of writing that we’re now seeing since starting Ready Steady Write. If schools are feeling overwhelmed about implementation, I’d absolutely recommend getting a Literacy Counts consultant involved – Louise’s day of support was priceless. She brought her expertise in EYFS and Ready Steady Write, we brought our understanding of our school, and together it all just clicked. This ensured the curriculum implementation was fully aligned to our whole-school development plan. This decision was also made possible thanks to our Headteacher’s strategic leadership, which enabled us to take a bold step away from a resource that was not delivering the outcomes we needed.”

Bex and Colette agreed: “At first, it felt like a huge task, but Louise helped us sort everything in a single day. It was a lightbulb moment – it all aligned perfectly.”

And the data is showing early promise. “Writing outcomes are now catching up to our strong phonics results,” said Carley. “After the government phonics validation, we invested heavily in phonics and saw great outcomes – but writing was slipping behind. Now, thanks to Ready Steady Write’s repetition and daily structure, our lowest 20% are making the progress we wanted. We are excited to see the impact on writing outcomes at the end of our first year of implementation.”

Creativity, Consistency and Cross-Curricular Connections

The impact of Ready Steady Write has gone beyond literacy sessions. The team spoke about how well the resource supports cross-curricular planning. “We don’t use Ready Steady Phonics, but still, Ready Steady Write aligns perfectly. Even during monitoring, you can see how our other phonics scheme is still able to match with Ready Steady Write. It’s all joined up!”

Louise asked if they were still able to follow the children’s interests. “Yes, definitely,” said Bex. “As long as we’re sticking to the core knowledge for reading and writing, we can still weave in their interests. The sentence checkers support all areas of learning, and we can bring the vocabulary and sentence structures into the wider provision.” While Ready Steady Write offers an Enabling Environments document to support schools with ideas and inspiration, the EYFS team at Feniscowles find they don’t need to rely on it. “It’s a great starting point for schools who want that guidance. For us, the structure of Ready Steady Write gives us more time to get excited as a team about provision ideas. We love getting together and finding fun, meaningful ways to bring the units into our environment.”

A Resource That Supports Teachers

“It’s refreshing to be able to pick it up and run with it,” the team shared. “The heavy lifting has already been done by Literacy Counts, and that makes a real difference. If one of us is off sick (not that we ever are, haha), it’s easy for someone else to step in. There’s consistency and clarity.”

Some of this ‘heavy lifting’ includes:

Clear, consistent lesson sequences that follow a proven structure

High-quality, vocabulary-rich Vehicle Texts that spark imagination

Story Friends and Story Songs that support story structure, language development and oracy

Example Texts and Writer’s Knowledge documents to guide sentence-level teaching

Built-in sentence accuracy work through our loveable, Sentence Snake

Planning support that’s easy to follow and simple to adapt for all learners

With these tools in place, teachers can focus on what matters most — engaging their children in purposeful, joyful learning experiences.

The structure has also had a positive effect on workload and professional confidence. “We’re planning less because the expectations are so clear, and the routines are now second nature to us and the children. We’re so pleased to have a reduced workload. Thank you Literacy Counts!”

Carley reflected on the benefits from a leadership perspective: “As SLT, we now know that every cohort experiences a robust and steady curriculum thanks to Ready Steady Write. It’s given us confidence and clarity across year groups, and it was a joy to see this in action during our literacy lesson observations. We look forward to seeing the impact Ready Steady Write will have after the children experience a few years of this structure and ambition.”

Final Thoughts

“Ready Steady Write is super clear. We know exactly what we’re teaching and why. It doesn’t restrict us – it supports us. It’s made a huge difference to outcomes, engagement and teacher confidence. Thank you, Literacy Counts – we love it, and so do the children!”

Feniscowles is now proudly opening its doors to other schools, with Bex, Colette and the senior leadership team leading the way.