Earlier this year, a group of pupils in an Enhanced Learning Provision (ELP) took part in a research project led by Durham County Council's SEND & Inclusion Service and Leadgate Primary School, exploring the impact of Clicker on their writing progress. Enhanced Learning Provisions support pupils with a range of additional needs while helping them remain connected to mainstream school life.

The project set out to understand how Clicker could support pupils' literacy development, confidence and independence. Through observations, pupil and staff feedback, and evidence gathered over time, the project provides valuable insight into the difference the right support tools can make for learners who may find writing particularly challenging.

While the pupils involved were based in an ELP, many of the barriers highlighted in the project, such as difficulty getting ideas onto paper, maintaining confidence when writing, and working independently, are challenges that mainstream teachers encounter every day.

As I read the findings, I was struck by how familiar the challenges felt. Although the project took place in an Enhanced Learning Provision, many of the barriers it highlighted were the same ones I encountered every day as a KS2 teacher. More importantly, it helped me better understand one of the biggest challenges I faced in writing lessons: not knowing how to support pupils, but being unable to provide that support to everyone at the moment they needed it.

What the research confirmed for me as a teacher

Independence increased when the right support was in place

One of the strongest messages from the project is that pupils became more independent when they had access to appropriate literacy support. Rather than relying on adult prompts to get started, continue writing or check their work, pupils were able to make progress more confidently on their own.

Confidence plays a crucial role in writing success

The project highlighted the close relationship between confidence and participation. When pupils felt more capable of expressing their ideas, they were more willing to engage with writing activities and take risks with their learning. The link between confidence and engagement is also reflected in the National Literacy Trust’s 2026 Annual Literacy Survey.

This matters because confidence is not always easy to identify. Some pupils may avoid writing altogether, while others appear engaged and capable but still lack confidence in their own abilities.

For teachers, this presents a challenge. Unlike some barriers to learning, low confidence is not always visible. A pupil can appear engaged, productive and capable while still needing constant reassurance before committing their ideas to paper.

The project reminds us that a pupil's confidence cannot always be judged by what we see on the surface, but it can influence their willingness to participate and succeed as writers.

Pupils were able to focus on communicating ideas

For many learners, the challenge of writing extends beyond generating ideas. Spelling, handwriting, sentence construction and vocabulary retrieval can place significant demands on working memory.

By reducing some of these cognitive demands, Clicker enabled pupils to focus more attention on the content of what they wanted to say. The result was not simply more writing, but more opportunities for pupils to demonstrate their understanding and knowledge. This is a delicate balance – quality over quantity.

Small changes can have a big impact

The project serves as a reminder that meaningful improvements in access to learning do not always require major changes in pedagogy or curriculum. Sometimes the most powerful interventions are those that simply remove a barrier standing between a pupil and the task they're being asked to complete. This highlights the value of assistive technology as part of a wider inclusive teaching approach, not just in classrooms with higher ratios of identified need.

How could using Clicker help teachers in mainstream literacy lessons?

Before joining Crick, I was an Assistant Principal and KS2 teacher. I regularly modelled literacy lessons for teachers across the trust, particularly in writing.

As I read the findings from this project, I couldn't help but think about the potential implications for mainstream classrooms. In settings like those I taught in, where one adult supports thirty children with an increasing range of identified and unidentified learning needs, the ability to provide effective support while promoting independence is invaluable.

The queue

One of the most striking aspects of the project for me is how familiar many of the challenges feel. Although the pupils were part of an Enhanced Learning Provision, the barriers they experienced are certainly not unique to specialist settings.

Every year my classroom contained pupils who struggled to express their ideas, who became overwhelmed by a blank page, or who depended heavily on adult support to complete written tasks.

Typically, as I was the only adult in the classroom, the pupils’ barriers to learning became my barriers to teaching. I knew how to help each child individually, but the constraints of resources and the length of the lesson meant I would struggle to share my time between everyone (no matter how well prepared I was, or how hard I tried!).

Looking back, many of the requests for help I received weren't really about understanding the task or generating ideas. More often than not , they were spelling queries or confidence check-ins:

"Can I say…?"

"Is this a good idea?"

"I'm not sure what to write next."

While these questions appeared to be about writing, I suspect many were actually requests for reassurance.

In many cases, I think it’s because writing isn't an automatic process for many pupils. Getting ideas onto paper requires time, effort and concentration, so it is understandable that they wanted some reassurance before committing themselves to the task.

It seemed that many struggled to make that effort unless they felt reasonably confident they were heading in the right direction. The thought of having to rub out, rewrite or start again could feel overwhelming, making it harder for them to take risks and commit their ideas to paper.

The bottleneck

This often created a bottleneck in my classroom. Even in a well-managed classroom, it is difficult for one teacher to provide immediate reassurance, feedback and guidance to every pupil who needs it. I was often left wondering how much more my pupils could have achieved if that support had been available at the moment they needed it.

The likelihood in many classrooms is that the pupils with identified SEND are on the teacher’s radar, but others can struggle quietly without attracting much attention. Some pupils have plenty of ideas and are eager to contribute yet find the physical or cognitive demands of writing too difficult to get their ideas onto paper.

One of the challenges I found as a teacher is that writing confidence didn’t always look the way I expected it to. A pupil who appeared to be coping well could still be doubting every sentence they wrote, making confidence much harder to identify than other, more visible barriers to learning.

The gamechanger

So what particularly stood out for me from this project, is that Clicker didn’t just help the pupils write more. It helped pupils confidently demonstrate what they knew by reducing the demands associated with organising thoughts, recalling vocabulary, spelling accurately and managing the cognitive load of writing. This enabled them to focus more attention on communicating their ideas.

For me, the most encouraging message from the project is that each pupil’s independence increased by providing the right support – rather than additional adult support. When pupils have tools that help them succeed, they can rely less on adult intervention and develop greater confidence in their own abilities.

As a teacher, the challenge was rarely knowing how to help. The challenge was being able to provide that support to every pupil at the moment they needed it. By helping pupils overcome some of these barriers independently, Clicker could have reduced one of the biggest bottlenecks in my classroom: pupils waiting for reassurance, guidance or support before moving forward with their writing.

This would have been a gamechanger for my classroom.

What does using Clicker mean for inclusive literacy support?

Whether a pupil has an EHCP, has identified barriers to writing, or simply lacks confidence as a writer, the factors that influence their writing are often remarkably similar. Learners need accessible ways to share their ideas, experience success and build independence over time.

For me, the project is a reminder that the right support doesn't always mean more adult support. Sometimes it means giving pupils the tools they need to move forward independently. When barriers to writing are reduced, pupils have more opportunity to share what they know, build confidence and participate fully in learning.