Context

Over the last couple of years we have done a lot of work on writing and raising standards with boys’ writing. In a bid to continue this, we saw the Everybody Writes initiative as an ideal opportunity to focus and celebrate writing and find a way for children to see the purpose of writing and enjoy it. We have previously been involved in writing competitions and have an annual book character day. We also have had authors and poets delivering workshops across the school.

Aims & principles

• Finding ways to take writing beyond the classroom
• Providing children with exciting stimuli for writing based on their experiences and interest
• Establishing real audiences for children’s writing
• Writing across the curriculum

In Practice

Following attendance at an Everybody Writes conference day in November 2008 my colleague and I came up with some ideas for a ‘celebration of writing’ day and this was introduced and discussed at a whole staff meeting in early December. We collated ideas and decided that we wanted the day to focus on our achievements at Norbury, with each year group focusing on a different element of school that we could celebrate, e.g. sporting events, school grounds and people who work in our school. We also wanted to think of some whole school activities that would draw the school together during the day as well.

Year groups then met and decided on writing activities, that were:

Nursery and Reception - We can write
Mark making and writing in all areas using different resources – chalk, magnetic letters etc., Working across the two different areas.
Display for parents: Large sheets of writing, photographs, chalk writing outside, labelling in small world.

Year 1 - People who help us in school
Using a range of media such as chalk, pasta, magnetic letters etc. to create collages of people who help in school and think of adjectives to describe that person
Long term development of writing area on infant playground
Display for parents: Large collages and pictures of people who help in school with labels and captions

Year 2 - School of the future
Children to create their own imaginary school and create group posters with each focusing on different element of explanation writing e.g. labels, captions, diagrams.
Display for parents: Large group posters, photographs of the group work,
collages of the schools.

Year 3 - Celebrating school grounds
Possibility of designing an orienteering course with word clues; Writing relating to sensory garden.

Year 4 - Play writing
Children to write plays based on traditional stories.
Display for parents: Photos with captions, scripts.

Year 5 - Celebrating our sporting opportunities
Completing sporting activities against parents. Writing recounts, reports, rule books, posters etc. with the help of parents.
Display for parents: Reports on different sport matches, Rule books, Posters, Video to be shown on screen in school.

Year 6 - Our memories of our school
Composing a book of Year 6s’ memories of their time at Norbury to be published and given to the children.
Display for parents: A book / possibility of a film.

Outcomes

One of the best things about the day was the enthusiasm and excitement of the children and the involvement of the parents. It was a fun and exciting topic and everyone from nursery to year 6 enjoyed the day, including all of the staff.

Now that the staff have experienced planning and organising a writing day they would be keen to do something similar again.

“It was a really fun day. I loved playing the word games in class and writing on the playground with my Mum and Dad in the morning!” - Year 4 pupil

“I loved playing the netball game with the parents. My writing was so much easier because I could write about what I had done!” - Year 5 pupil

“There was a real buzz about the day from all year groups. It proved to the children and parents involved that writing can be fun” - PPA Staff

Legacy

Staff now seem to really recognise the need for children to have a real purpose for their writing. They also recognize that the quality of writing the children produced on the day was of a high standard because they were so enthused about what they were writing.

We are also now developing a writing area on the infant playground as a result of the day with whiteboards, chalk boards, alphabet letters etc.,

The day certainly highlighted the need for children to be given a real purpose for their writing and the value of being creative in our approach to writing across the school.

Resources

Costs for the project were 4 hours of staff time (including staff meeting and planning time) and £300 in practical resources.

Summary

The day itself ran really smoothly and both the staff and children really enjoyed the event. Staff agreed that they had over planned for the day and that probably next time they would not try to cover so much during the day.

In terms of preparation for the day, most of it was done during staff meeting time and so there was little pressure on staff in terms of time. The staff actually really enjoyed the day and appreciated a break from the usual routine. The quality of the work that the children produced and the enthusiasm and buzz around school throughout the day was considerable and for this alone, I would recommend other schools to get involved.

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