We’ll be practising all the techniques in short bursts designed to fire up the imagination and awaken the creative brain.

I’ll be giving you lots of prompts to help you, but believe me, you’ll be surprised at what you can come up with!

In a world that shouts loudly, being able to express yourself through the written word is increasingly important.

Writing gives you a voice. It enables you to communicate and be heard above the noise. To be able to write, and write well, is a gift to yourself.

One of the best ways to improve your writing is to practise. That’s the advice most authors would give you if you asked them – including me! So why not join me on a Wednesday evening, no experience required, just come along with your imagination and a willingness to give it a go.

You can join in with a mid-week after school club at Storymakers on a Wednesday evening at any time.

Don’t worry if you’ve missed the start of the term. Join in at any time if there are spaces. You are welcome to pay for a one-off trial session to see whether you like it before committing to the full term.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: PLEASE READ.

Since the Coronavirus lockdown, Storymakers has gone virtual!

The weekly groups still happen on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, but via Zoom.

The weekly group timetable looks like this:

See the Weekly Groups page for more information about the Saturday sessions.

If you would like to join any of these groups mid-way through the term, please contact me to arrange. They are suitable for children in Years 3, up to secondary age (Young Writers).

Alternatively, I can offer 1:1 virtual sessions (on Zoom). You can book these on the virtual sessions page.

Would you like to set up an after school club specifically for creative writing, at your school?

There is lots of evidence to support the importance of wider reading for enjoyment and its connection to reading ability, but what about writing?

In particular, the National Literacy Trust regularly examine whether children who write for enjoyment benefit from it in terms of both writing ability and frequency. In one survey, 39,411 pupils, aged 8-18 years answered questions about their attitudes towards writing. This was in order to examine the link between writing enjoyment and writing behaviour, confidence, motivation and attainment.

Children who write creatively outside of school are more likely to be better writers.

Most children aged 8-11 write at the expected level, regardless of whether they write for fun in their spare time. However, twice as many young people who do write creatively outside of school actually write above the expected level for their age.

In comparison, eight times as many children who do not enjoy writing, write below the expected level for their age.

Children who enjoy writing are more likely to write something in their free time that isn’t school-work related. These children write a greater range of different formats during this time. Motivation comes because they believe writing is fun and cool, for example. They also believe writing will help them learn and the more they do, the better they will be at it.

Over twice as many children who enjoy writing will write something daily outside of the classroom that’s not related to school work. They write fiction/short stories, letters, poems, diaries, song lyrics, among other things.

The findings of this research highlight how important it is for children and young people to enjoy writing, for the benefit of their writing attainment.

How can we get children to enjoy writing?

Getting children to see that writing can be fun, isn’t easy. Many see it as a chore, an extension of their homework, and don’t they get enough of that already?

At the Storymakers Writing Club, we work in small groups and encourage children to share ideas and help each other. At the same time, they also know they need to put down their own ideas and they’re very willing to do so.

The 8-10 year-olds in the Writer Buds group explore a number of different writing styles over the course. In the past, this has included creating comic strip stories complete with illustrations, script writing and sports reporting. Every term, we look at different styles of writing, to keep things interesting and the children motivated.

The Story Writers (7-9 years) explore where ideas come from. They learn how to develop characters, plot and settings and to structure their ideas to help stories flow.

On a more advanced note, the Young Writers (11 years plus) work on a deeper understanding of story structure and form.

At Storymakers, there is no judgement over quality of work. The club exists to help and encourage. Ultimately, my job is to help children overcome their barrier to writing. Once they do this, they become so proud of their work and this in turn, encourages them to write more.