Context

Our aim was to improve writing for all. We felt the Everybody Writes project was a way to motivate children to write for pleasure and to have positive feelings about writing regardless of their ability.  We had a writing competition last year across the school and as a result we published a book of stories voted for by the children. This had been very successful and so we wanted to continue enjoying writing in the school.

Aims & principles

We were looking to improve our writing results as this was a target on our school development plan; however, underpinning this was a desire to boost the profile of writing for pleasure. We wanted to be sure that the writing of all children was celebrated and that children felt their work was valued regardless of their ability. We also wanted to step away from timetabling and Literacy hour restrictions and to give the children freedom to write for an extended period of time.

In Practice

The one off celebration aspect of this project was covered by our Books Factor event. This was an “Oscars”-style awards ceremony to honour the books the children had nominated for prizes, complete with Oscar awards and a red carpet. The books had been chosen by Sue Steele of Simply Books who had become involved with the school as part of updating reading books. She had come into school earlier in the year to present and spark enthusiasm for the titles she had chosen. 

The children read and then voted on their favourite book from their year group’s choice of titles. They wrote reviews and produced artwork based on the books, and prizes were awarded on the day of the Books Factor for the best reviews and artwork. The winning authors received framed editions of the reviews and artwork as prizes. On the day of the ceremony all the children were encouraged to come to school either dressed as a book character or in Oscars-style clothing. 

We had a visit from one of the winning authors, Steve Cole, who attended the ceremony and spent the day talking to groups of children about being an author. His “Cows in Action” stories are all based on the theme of time-travelling cows.  Publishers for the other winning authors also came with messages from the authors. The following day we had a writing day with the theme of time travel and each class did a variation on this theme, as follows:

Nursery

We linked the time travel theme with the idea of Smartie the Robot Alien coming to Nursery from Mars. He wanted to find out all about writing to go back and tell his friends. Children used a variety of writing implements on a range of surfaces inside and out. Some wrote letters for Smartie’s friends which he could then take back with him. There is a display in the entrance to Nursery to show parents and visitors. 

Reception

Children imagined going into a balloon and being sucked into medieval times and changed into a medieval character. One group was turned into wizards and made a book of spells, another group were kings and wrote diary entries and another group were knights and made a catalogue so that other knights could buy parts for their armour. Some were witches and wrote creepy stories and one group were a mixture of dragons, princes, princesses and knights and wrote character profiles about themselves.

Year 1

The children arrived in class to see a big hole in the ceiling. On the table was a strange metal object and green slime trailed across the table to the window. Inspired by this, the children wrote alien stories and went on an alien hunt to look for evidence. They imagined what alien language would sound like and wrote speech bubbles in made-up alien language to go with alien pictures.

Year 2

The children made plasticine models of the story setting and Lego models of the vehicles used to get there and created stories about time travel. The children also wrote postcards home from their exciting settings.

Year 3

The class linked the time travel theme with their history topic. Children wrote adventure stories about being transported back in time to ancient Egypt.  They wrote their stories in comic strip and as a narrative. Some children also wrote information about ancient Egypt to include in a class book.

Year 4

Year 4 linked the idea of time travel to their history work on ancient Greece. The children were reminded of the story of the wooden horse of Troy and then planned and produced a comic strip story. The children chose different characters to be in their stories and then wrote them accordingly.

Following this, the children used Steve Coles’ ideas from the previous day when and produced their own fabulous time travel stories.

Year 5

In year 5 the children organised their own learning and were given free choice as to what they would like to write about and in what format, based around the theme of time travel. After looking at some images of time travel and discussing ideas the children devised a plan and came ready prepared on the day to do some fantastic writing!

Year 6

The year 6 class produced comic strips using laptops, made alien books, time slip stories, tardis postcards and space holiday brochures.

Partnerships

The school invited a children’s author, Steve Cole, to run a workshop with the children.

Outcomes

• Enthusiasm and excitement about writing generated throughout school.
• Each class produced a book with everybody’s work included which will be displayed in the Library and shared in assemblies.

Attitudes and attainment after the project

“I like this. It’s unusual because we never get to have a writing day like this - it’s like golden time.”

“I think my story’s really good and I feel really proud.”

“I think it’s the best day of my life! I love doing alien writing.”

Legacy

• Raised awareness of writing as a fun activity.
• Displays celebrating children’s work giving writing a high profile.
• Desire from staff, children and parents to repeat this.
• Dedicating time off timetable to writing, creative approach to teaching writing.

Resources

The school spent a total of £450 on teacher time and various craft resources as well as the services of a visiting writer for one day.

Final thought

• Look carefully at the timing of the event - we would do it at the beginning of a half term not at the end next time. Many children wanted to continue writing after the day but we ran out of time.
• Dedicating time off-timetable to writing, and for the juniors working in classes and not sets really worked and needs repeating.
• Teachers want to do more to celebrate other writing in class on other occasions.
• Local press came but didn’t run the story - will push this more next time.

Quotes from teachers

“What a brilliant day! Everyone worked extremely hard producing stories, pop-up books, comics and even some music and lyrics!”

“The children have displayed their work in a fabulous book which they spend a lot of time looking through. They have been very positive about the day and the work their classmates have produced.”

“What struck me in particular was the impact of working as a whole class and the high level of expectation from the children themselves to achieve. I was delighted that the reluctant writers were very motivated. On the first day all children wrote for the entire morning!”

Quotes from parents

“I do think, as a school, literacy is your strength. Many thanks.”

“My son has spent all of his Easter holidays writing Astrosaurs stories in the style of Steve Cole – you can’t ask for more than that!! Thank you.”

“My child had a wonderful week in school; he was really keen to talk about everything he had experienced – which is a rare treat for us! We have spent much of the holidays having to go to book club in his bedroom and have stories read to us to vote on. Many thanks for all your hard work with this week.”

“The whole experience gave our children great ideas to use in their story writing. I am sure they will all remember the whole experience for some time.”

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