TLB · WRITE TO THINK
Every child has something to say. We help them write it.
We help schools and education programmes teach writing as a way of thinking.
Ideas are hard to mark.
Most of what gets marked in a child’s writing is correctness: spelling, handwriting, full stops. What rarely gets taught, or even noticed, is whether the child had something to say and found a way to say it. That’s the part that builds confident thinkers.
EVERY CHILD, EVERY WEEK: THREE WAYS TO WRITE
Write to record
Getting words down accurately: handwriting, spelling, copying, correct sentences.
Write to express
Saying something of their own, with voice and choice, for a real reader.
Most classrooms stop at write to record. We help every child write to think, starting with talk and stories in their own language.
Write to think
Using writing to work things out: explaining, arguing, reflecting, imagining.
FOR SCHOOLS
Classrooms where children love to write.
We work alongside your teachers to build classrooms where every child has something to say, and the confidence to say it on the page.
Children who love to write.
Pupils who see writing as theirs: a place for their stories, ideas and opinions, not just an exercise to get right.
Teachers who feel confident.
Simple routines that turn everyday lessons into chances to compose, explain and imagine, with no extra marking.
Parents who see the growth.
Real progress in children’s writing, from first stories to confident arguments, not just neater books.
WAYS TO WORK WITH US
Writing audit
A clear picture of writing in your school today, and three priorities to change it.
Write to Create
Workshops that spark a love of writing. Every child leaves with a piece that is truly their own.
Teach to Write
Training and in-class coaching that gives every teacher routines they’ll use the next morning.
A Year with TLB
A whole-school shift across one year, ending in Write to Share: a celebration of pupils’ writing for parents.
FOR EDUCATION PROGRAMMES AND NGOS
The writing layer for foundational literacy.
Foundational literacy programmes have made real gains in reading. Writing, children putting their own ideas on the page, is rarely taught, funded or measured alongside it. We help programmes add it, at low cost, without competing for the time reading needs.
Diagnostic review
Where is writing missing from your curriculum, materials and assessment?
Programme design
Teacher guides, classroom routines and low-cost delivery, including WhatsApp-supported coaching.
Assessment and MEL design
Evidence of children’s writing that helps teachers teach, with honest, light-touch indicators for reporting.
ABOUT
Matilda Pickford, founder
Since 2020, when The Learning Box began running writing workshops for primary children in London, we’ve watched the same thing happen again and again: give children a real reason to write and a way in, and they have far more to say than their exercise books ever let on.
That idea has travelled with us from London classrooms to teacher training and literacy programme design in South Africa, Malawi and Zambia. Our founder, Matilda Pickford, is now based in Lusaka.
Write to Think is where that work comes together: writing not as something children produce to be marked, but as the way they work out what they think.
Classroom teacher
PGCE, Goldsmiths. Primary teacher and subject lead in London, at a school rated Ofsted “outstanding”.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Teacher training and literacy programme design in South Africa, Malawi and Zambia.
Research
MA Education & International Development, UCL Institute of Education, with a dissertation on writing in foundational literacy.
100% of teachers surveyed after our literacy training in Nkhata Bay, Malawi rated it “very useful”. Average confidence rose from 2.4 to 4.6 out of 5.
LITERACY TEACHER TRAINING, NKHATA BAY, 2024RECENT WORK
WhatsApp-based teacher support for a South African literacy NGO: a 46% improvement in phonics and 40% in reading comprehension in one month.
Grade 4 English and Maths assessment design, tracking learner progress across the school year.
Foundational literacy training for 45 primary and pre-primary teachers in Nkhata Bay, Malawi.
Pilot findings presented to Zambia’s Ministry of Education.