Context

Tidemill Primary School is situated in the heart of Deptford, south-east London, an area with a rich mix of cultures and significant social deprivation. Lewisham is the second largest inner London borough. 

Tidemill is a successful, innovative and happy school with over 30 languages spoken by children. The most recent Ofsted inspection produced a glowing report:

“Tidemill is an outstanding school. It provides a very high quality of education and level of care for its pupils… Pupils achieve very well in the school. This is due to a combination of factors. Very significant amongst these is their personal development, which is excellent. For example, the outstanding social and emotional development of pupils results in a happy community in which relationships are excellent… Pupils feel part of and proud of their school, know that they are very well looked after and, as a result, they are very keen to learn and to do well. Teaching is of high quality. Literacy, numeracy and science investigational skills are all taught very well, and very well-planned additional support is provided for those pupils falling behind or having difficulty.” (Ofsted, June 2008)

Aims & principles

Tidemill’s Everybody Writes Day aimed to:

• Engage all children with the new school site through fun and interesting writing activities
• Raise the profile of writing within the school
• Involve parents in writing
• Generate excitement and enthusiasm around writing
• Get all pupils and staff involved in a writing project and launch Everybody Writes in the school

In Practice

Tidemill were interested in running an Everybody Writes Day to launch Everybody Writes in the school. As part of the extensive Deptford Town Centre Regeneration Programme, a brand new site and building is being built for the school on the next road, Giffin Street. The school has had close links with the project management team and work on the site was about to start in the week of Everybody Writes Day. Children had been told about the new building and many of them walk past the new site every day, and staff were interested in developing their engagement with it. 

There was also an opportunity to have the school professionally photographed for publicity for Everybody Writes Day and the headteacher and staff were keen to raise the profile of the school in this way. The new school site seemed a natural theme for Tidemill’s Everybody Writes Day. 

Parents:  As parents dropped their children off at school, they were invited to write their hopes and aspirations for the new school building (or a memory of their own school days) onto luggage labels on a writing table in the playground. 

Nursery/Reception:  Children took part in activities linked to their ‘Houses’ topic, including builder role play with sand and building blocks, free writing with chalk on the playground tarmac, drawing designs for their new classrooms, and writing with coloured pens and paint on large pieces of paper attached to playground walls.

Years 1 & 2:  Poet Rosemary Harris gave a 40 minute interactive poetry performance to children at the beginning of the day. She then ran poetry writing workshops with each class, lasting approximately an hour each. Each class came up with a group poem about the objects, ideas and memories children wanted to take to the new school building, and practised performing their poems.

Years 3 & 4:  A group of children were taken to the new site where they met the site manager and asked him questions. They wrote down his answers and their observations about the site on clipboards to report back to their classmates. Pre-arranged with Rachel, the site manager handed over an old tin he had ‘found’ on the site. Children opened the tin and discovered a Second World War gas mask wrapped up inside it, which linked in with their Second World War topic. Children took the gas mask back to school and showed it to each class. They spent the afternoon writing gas mask use instructions or postcards home and acrostic poems on the theme of the Blitz. 

Years 5 & 6:  In the morning children gathered in the hall to meet and interview Philippa Lau-Brown, Project Manager for the Deptford Regeneration project. Children asked pre-prepared questions about the new school building and its progress and made notes on clipboards. They went back to their classrooms to watch examples of TV news reports and write their own news reports about the new school in small groups. They practised and rehearsed their news reports. 

Years 1-6:  At the end of the day a celebration assembly was held and children shared their work. Year 1 & 2 classes performed their group poems led by Rosemary Harris. Year 3 & 4 children read out their gas mask poems and talked to the rest of the school about their ‘find’ on the site. Years 5 & 6 children performed their TV news reports. 

Children/parents:  In the week leading up to Everybody Writes Day, all children had written about something they would like to take to the new school (an object, a feeling, a memory, an attitude) on a footprint-shaped piece of card. These pieces of card were laminated by TAs and during the day staff stuck them with blu-tack onto the pavement and road in a long snaking line leading from the current school building to the new school building in the next street. Children’s drawings and other written work were then displayed, along with the parents’ luggage labels, on the fences of the new school site, for children, parents, staff and members of the public to enjoy at the end of the school day. 

How we did it

Rachel Smith, Literacy Coordinator, managed the organisation of the day and began by doing a presentation about Everybody Writes and the idea of doing a whole-school writing-themed day in a staff meeting. Staff were positive about the idea and agreed to work on developing activities and lesson plans for their classes. 

The idea of an outdoor display on the fences of the new school site on Giffin Street seemed a good way to find a real audience for the children’s writing and to make a positive connection with the local community. The school’s art teacher and artist in residence helped develop the display based on the idea of footprints leading to the new school. 

In the week leading up to Everybody Writes Day, every child in the school was given a piece of coloured card cut out into the shape of a footprint. In class time teachers asked the children to write their thoughts about what they would like to take to the new school building onto the pieces of card. Older children were prompted by spaces for things they could see, hear, smell and feel, while younger children had space to draw and write.

Footprint by Solaimen: “I will take the sight of my lovely teachers smiling. I will take the sound of my friend’s laughter in the playground. I will take the smell of freshly sharpened pencils ready for work. I will take the feeling of success,” 

Footprint by Sapphire: “I will take my packed lunch, friends and a football,”

All the footprints were collected by TAs in each class and laminated on both sides (a mammoth task!). During Everybody Writes Day and while children were in the classrooms, staff and helpers attached the footprints to the pavement with blu-tack in a long line leading to the new school site. Children, parents and the public were able to enjoy and follow the display at the end of the day. 

It was also decided to involve parents in the plans for the new school and the writing activities. Posters and designs for the new school site stuck to the playground walls greeted parents and children as they arrived at school in the morning, and parents were invited by staff to write down their own aspirations for the new school. Parents sat down at a writing table set up in the playground and wrote down their thoughts on luggage labels, often with their children looking on. Children were intrigued to see their parents taking part and doing some writing, and were quite put out that this activity wasn’t for them! At the end of the day new posters were stuck on the walls to encourage parents to look at the display at the new school site and to see their writing displayed there.

As year 1 & 2 classes had recently missed out on a visit to the school by a poet, their teachers were keen for the children to have an opportunity to work creatively with a writer. The poet Rosemary Harris, who specialises in working with children of this age group, was booked via the performance poetry agency Apples & Snakes. She spent the whole day with years 1 & 2, performing to them all together at the beginning of the day and working with them to create class poems to perform to the whole school in the celebration assembly. 

Year 3 & 4 teachers wanted their children to do some creative writing linking in with their Second World War topic. Staff were interested in the idea of children’s writing being stimulated by a ‘discovery’, and as Rachel owned a gas mask which had belonged to her grandmother, she contacted the site manager before the day to ask if it was possible for him to present the mask to the children and say he had found it buried there. The site manager was willing to do this and in the morning of Everybody Writes Day Rachel went to the site to give him an old tin containing the mask. 

As staff were also keen for some of the children to visit the site, it was decided that a group of year 3 & 4 children would visit the site and talk to the site manager who had agreed to spend some time with them and answer their questions. Children were excited to see the site at the beginning of its development, and thrilled by the ‘discovery’ of the gas mask. 

Nursery and reception staff decided to link in with their ‘Houses’ topic and initiated a range of drawing, playing and writing activities on this building theme. 

Year 5 & 6 teachers put together lesson plans about interviewing and news reporting. In advance of the day, they talked to children about the new site, gave them some information about it and asked them to come up with questions for the regeneration project manager. On the day children enjoyed putting their questions to the project manager and then went back to class where they watched examples of TV news report and were given a structured activity in small groups to help them write their own news report.

The whole school celebration assembly was a good way for children to find out what other classes had been up to and share their work. 

Led by Rachel, staff worked together fantastically well in a short time frame to pull off a varied and exciting Everybody Writes Day for the whole school. 

Partnerships

Parents
Parents were invited to write on luggage labels provided in the playground and express their hopes or wishes for the new school site, or to share a memory from their school days.
The luggage tags were tied to the fencing around the new school site and became part of the school’s outdoor display, which was ready for parents and children to see at the end of the school day. 

Deptford Town Centre Regeneration Programme, led by Lewisham Borough Council
Philippa Lau-Brown, Project Manager for ‘The Future of Deptford Town Centre’ regeneration programme, was involved in plans for the day from the beginning. Philippa is the school’s main point of contact for the new school building project and was supportive of the idea of Everybody Writes activities themed on the new school. She put Rachel in touch with the construction group building the school and visited year 5 & 6 on the day, bringing along with her an architect’s model of the new building. Year 5 & 6 pupils interviewed Philippa and asked her many questions about the site and its development. 

Galliford Try Construction Group
The site manager from the construction company Galliford Try agreed to meet with year 3 & 4 pupils on the site on Everybody Writes Day and answer their questions. In discussion with Rachel, he also agreed to present an old tin containing a gas mask to the children and say he had found it on the site. This generated enormous excitement and interest among the children. 

Outcomes

Outcomes were:

• Class poems
• Individual poems about gas masks and WW2
• Scripts for TV news reports about the new school
• Temporary outdoor writing display featuring footprints, luggage tags and drawings

Attitudes and attainment after the project

The project was received very positively by children who enjoyed the ‘special’ nature of the day and were enthusiastic about the activities. Staff were also enthusiastic and commented that it had been worth the effort and an enjoyable day. 
Children in years 3 & 4 were particularly excited about the gas mask ‘find’ on the site and the news spread throughout the year groups rapidly. Children were more motivated than usual to write their poems having had an exciting initial stimulus.

Children in years 5 & 6 commented that they had enjoyed ‘feeling like grown ups’ when they were interviewing the site project manager. Having worked with their teachers beforehand to prepare questions, they showed maturity and insight in their questioning. 

The quality of children’s engagement in the day was highlighted in the celebration assembly, when an excellent range of work was shared. The year 5 & 6 TV reports were lively, well-structured and convincing, testifying to the children’s interest in the subject and desire to present well what they had found out. 

The class poems created with years 1 & 2 with poet Rosemary Harris were moving and funny and were greeted with an appreciative response by the rest of the school. 

Legacy

Tidemill’s Everybody Writes Day launched a more sustained writing project based on the new school building, with target children from across the year groups. These children will be writing a blog (linked to Lewisham Borough Council’s Deptford regeneration website) updating people on the progress of the new school building. Children’s writing will also be displayed as part of a town centre exhibition for local residents, put on by Lewisham Borough Council. 

Rachel Smith, the Literacy Coordinator, hopes to run an Everybody Writes Day every term from now on. The spring term day will centre on burying a time capsule in the new school grounds. 

Resources

In terms of information for planning, apart from the Everybody Writes website, resources came from the partner organisations, Deptford Town Centre Regeneration Programme and Galliford Try. Ideas for activities were generated by Rachel and other staff, with Rachel heading up timetabling and planning. 

Materials were minimal and included:

Coloured card

Laminating sheets, blu-tack

Clipboards, paper and pens

The only additional cost was the laminating which came to approx £35.

The main expense was the fee for poet Rosemary Harris, £300.

Summary

The school decided to run this Everybody Writes Day at short notice, so any difficulties they experienced (such as a double-booking in the hall, when poet Rosemary Harris’s performance to years 1 & 2 clashed with a music group) could have been avoided with more planning time. 

More planning time would have also meant less pressure on staff, especially Rachel!

It would have been good to get larger numbers of year 3 & 4 pupils across to the new site. The school had the impression in advance that the site manager was worried about the number of children coming in because of safety reasons so it was kept to a small group, but on the day it was no problem at all and would have been fine if a lot more children had been there. This could potentially have been sorted out in advance with more time and relationship building with the construction company and the school.

It would also have been good to video the year 5 & 6 children’s news reports to put on the new school blog or school website. 

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