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Writing at Minchinhampton

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.” Stephen King

Writing Toolkit Writing on a Page – Everything you need to know about writing at Minchinhampton Academy Handwriting at our School

At Minchinhampton Academy, by giving our pupils inspiring and challenging reading material, we want them to learn what it is to be a true writer. We want them to go through each step of the process and see the importance of drafting, editing, re-drafting, re-editing so they are able to use their writing to speak their truth. We encourage all pupils to (in the words of Katherine Rundell) ‘never ignore a possible’ when it comes to their writing. The importance of empathy when writing cannot be underestimated. We encourage empathy because ‘you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb inside his skin and walk around in it.’

We relish the opportunity to read, listen to and write poetry. We want our pupils to enjoy using words- we want them to be ‘wordsmiths.’ We want them to feel that joy of creation when they bring something into being that was not there before. We want them to have the opportunity to express what they have thought, felt or seen. We want them to write to please themselves and for their own esteem. We think writing poetry is important, and personal, in a way that writing fiction is not: the key word here being ‘fiction’- we tend to feel that poems are true.

We love reading so much at Minchinhampton Academy, that the logical next step was obviously to write our own series of books! In the autumn terms of 2016 and 2018, the staff and pupils came together to take on the mammoth task of writing a book or two. Where others may have said this was impossible for a primary school, the staff took on the attitude perfectly summed up by Katherine Rundell, “Never ignore life’s possibles.” (Rooftoppers) and threw themselves into the writing process. Writing fever soon swept the building, scooping up the most reluctant writers, so that every child felt invested in the book .

For book one each class took on a period of history and transported themselves to that time. During the process, when you walked around the school, you would come across a class fighting against the Vikings or hiding from highwaymen. One class even took themselves on a walk around Minchinhampton looking for Henry VIII! When it came to book 2, classes were asked to transport themselves across the world and learn about a new country and culture. From Australia to Japan to the USA, pupils learnt about the traditions of their chosen place as well as influential artists that then later on inspired them to create artwork for the book.

The children see themselves as authors now. They have been involved in every step of the writing process: planning, writing, editing, illustrating, promoting and selling their work. Not many children aged 4-11 can say that about themselves. Our legacy of this is we have produced writers, publishers and illustrators of the future.

Children are full of ideas and possibilities. Who knows where they will take us next time!

“I have recently been writing lots of different things in English , but I am most proud of my bird in a cage poem, because it was powerful and I spent a lot of time on it.”

Poetry

Two of our pupils published their own poetry books

 

What our pupils say:

“I love writing because when I write I make it exciting.”

“Poetry is important. They like poetry at Minchinhampton and they seem to like my poetry.” Yr 6 Leaver 2020

“I feel the most proud of making my Aztec style graphic novel, it was a very hard challenge but I overcame it. It was hard because I had to sew, glue, stich, draw and write to finish this project but I love the finished product!”

“I’m most proud of  my poetry because at the beginning of the year I found poetry boring and hard but now I really enjoy it.”

“In writing I have written my Toms midnight garden story, the canal ,our journey to the river sea letters and writing about that. My toms midnight garden storey I was very proud of and  the journey to the river sea writing I have been proud of and satisfied with as well.”

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