Context

Writing is one of our Humanities Specialist School development priorities.

We had heard about the website at our summer residential conference for English NQTs in June 2008, were interested in its philosophy and practice, and wanted to develop an Everybody Writes Day afterwards.

In our last Humanities specialist school questionnaire (January 2008), we researched into pupils’ interest in extra-curricular writing activities.

A professional writer gives creative writing classes in the school each year as a part of the World Book Day celebrations.

Pupils take part in writing competitions as appropriate.

Aims & principles

• To engage all Y7 learners with writing for a range of real purposes and audiences, and in contexts outside of the classroom;
• To celebrate re-designation of our Humanities specialist status;
• To develop the use of ICT as a tool for promoting writing.

In Practice

As part of our specialist school status we wanted to give our Everybody Writes project a Humanities focus, and as we had a Humanities Day set aside for Y7 in the school calendar it seemed a good idea to exploit this opportunity.

We began by asking departments to complete the Everybody Writes audit and then used the outcomes as the basis for discussion at the first meeting of our Everybody Writes working group. Colleagues in the group included a DHT, Head of English, Head of RE, Head of History and the LA SNS English Consultant. An area of concern that had emerged from the audit was the use of ICT to facilitate writing, so we wanted to provide opportunities for this during the day. We also decided very early on that we would take the 2012 Olympics as a theme – this would provide a contextual legacy for Everybody Writes projects for at least the next three years. 

We kept the principles of Everybody Writes at the heart of our planning; taking writing beyond the classroom, making it fun, relevant and for a real audience so we explored a range of possibilities and consulted with the students to get their views on the types of workshop activities they’d like to participate in. 
We took the Olympic values as the stimulus for the whole day:

• Friendship
• Courage
• Determination
• Excellence
• Equality
• Respect
• Inspiration
• Participation

and began with a launch event for the whole year group that included a presentation from SSAT and a performance from a contemporary poet. Students then attended up to three workshops of their choice, each lasting 90 minutes. 

The range of workshops included:

• Poetry (with the performance poet)
• Sports journalism (with a Sky Sports reporter)
• Dance & Drama
• Screen writing (with a casting agent)
• Storytelling & story writing (led by Y9 pupils recently trained as storytellers)
• Meeting 6th formers who had produced a newspaper in a day and learning from them
• Writing for Brentford FC (visit to Griffin Park football stadium).

Partnerships

We organised activities with Brentford Football Club, Sky Sports and a performance poet. We also made connections with a casting agent.

Outcomes

Monitoring and evaluation of the project is based upon the following:

• Student feedback questionnaires
• Staff feedback questionnaires – including those who either led or facilitated workshops
• Observation and feedback from DHT and SNS English Consultant.

A sensational opening really set the tone for the whole event, and enthused all pupils and staff about working with words for the rest of the day. Every Y7 student got involved in playing with language and produced writing that was appropriate to the relevant activities. We were keen to emphasise that completing ‘polished’ pieces of writing wasn’t the purpose of our Everybody Writes project. Our key intention was to build an energy and enthusiasm for writing amongst all pupils by making it real, relevant and purposeful. Feedback from all those involved suggests we met that aim.

Students enjoyed having a range of workshop activities to choose from, so we were able to tailor their writing experiences to suit their personal tastes and interests. Inevitably, some workshops were more successful than others, and this will help to structure future project work. The main ingredients for a successful writing workshop seem to be those that :

• Are relevant to students’ interests and experiences
• Recognise students’ prior knowledge/skills
• Encourage links between all forms of communication
• Are enjoyable and seen as “fun”

Attitudes and attainment after the project

Quotes from the students
The best bit was….

“meeting the rapper and making our song!”

“The journalism class”

“I was with the poet. We had to write down what we would do or did to become a champion at something. It was trying to get children like us to make something of our selves. It was good.”

“The storytellers were the best- we made paper T shirts and a chicken out of a towel and made our won stories.”

“We rapped about paintballing” 

“I liked Griffin Park because we were outside in warm weather and we got to meet a professional footballer….We had a grand tour, played scattergory, interviewed players and wrote a programme piece.” 

“In pairs we had to write a small article about a sporting event. It had to be 80 words only. The headline had to be catchy and only 25 letters. We learnt a lot about sport and how to write good articles.”

Legacy

We’ve established a belief amongst the staff and Y7 that writing can be fun and a useful tool for all of us. It was particularly exciting to highlight the link between sport and literacy, and to actively demonstrate that writing is not confined to classrooms or is a passive activity. 

A physical legacy from the Everybody Writes Day is also planned for next term when we are going to incorporate some of the work produced into changes to the school environment.
Links with some of the professionals/ groups outside the school for future activities and projects e.g. an opportunity for pupils to write an article for a real football club programme.

Some pupils will become part of the storytellers; some will be involved as journalists writing about school events
Cross curricular focus on writing across the Humanities areas: English, history, RS

Photographs and a short film, plus different examples of the pupils’ writing

Final thought

Build in some shorter sessions or provide more detailed guidance for workshop leaders. 90 minutes was too long for some of the planned activities.

Have the confidence to risk take and offer even more “out of the box” and “fun” activities.
Areas for development are publishing some of the pupils’ writing and developing the pupil reporters within the year and across the curriculum.

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