A Final Farewell

Today we returned to our Creativity School to complete our project. We have been undertaking this work since October 2012. We started the project by researching what children enjoyed about writing, what they disliked and how writing could be improved in their school. These ideas and opinions inspired the format of our project and have subsequently shaped each activity we have undertaken.


To see what/how much impact we have had on the class, through the different activities and strategies we have used, we distributed a questionnaire to each child which they completed anonymously. The questions were derived from the original post-it-note survey. For ease of reading we have summarised our findings under the main categories using supporting quotes. We have also compared their responses from those collected in October. 

How do you feel about writing?

• The children's feelings regarding writing in school reflected that some children still viewed writing negatively, this seemed to depend upon the context and purpose of the work. 

I don't particularly like writing but I do enjoy writing stories.

It's okay, but some pieces of writing I don't like, I don't like writing reports.

• A few children found that one barrier to writing was their struggle to spell words correctly.

I feel kind of bad because my spelling is bad.

• A few children preferred using the computer to write because it produced faster results and removed the barrier of anxiety concerning handwriting. 

I prefer to type on the computer because it is much faster and handwriting is boring. 

• A lot of the children felt positively towards writing because they enjoyed it and thought it was fun.

I feel good about writing because it is enjoyable and exciting.

The difference in opinions from October to now reflect that there are less negative attitudes, less concerns about writing in a specific genre and less negative opinions about writing seeming to be difficult, boring or challenging. 

What do you like most about writing?

• The results showed that children's enjoyment of writing seemed to depend upon which genres (text-types) they liked, this had not changed. Most children still preferred narrative writing and poetry. 

                                    I enjoy writing stories and I love writing about characters. 

I enjoy more stories and using my imagination.

•  Children still overwhelmingly stated their reason for enjoying writing as linked to their ability to use their creativity and imagination. 

I enjoy the way in writing you can be as creative as you like.

• Interestingly, the children mentioned that they enjoyed writing when they could use laptops and computers. This was one of their original comments when we asked how writing could be improved in the classroom. 

What do you not like about writing?

• S.P.A.G - The large majority of children's replies showed that their concerns towards spelling, punctuation and grammer were the overriding barrier to their view of writing. 

I don't like grammer and punctuation as these are hard for me to put in the right place. 

• Some children seemed to show that one barrier to writing which was present in the original survey, was that their arms/hands ached. 

 I don't like that your hand hurts when you've been writing for a long time. 

• A small minority felt that the length of the assignment was a barrier to their enjoyment of the writing task.

I don't like writing long sentences with difficult words. 

Most obvious is that from the previous survey the category of genre was a main theme, however in this survey children's responses seemed to show that the context of genre had disappeared. Factors such as spelling, grammar, punctuation, speed and length were consistent barriers. 

What would you change about writing?

• Overwhelmingly, the class showed a huge response to wanting to use ICT more in their writing.

                                          I would like the option to use a computer more. 

• Children's opinions showed that they still wanted to have more freedom and flexibility over the content of their work. 

To make it more free, so you can write what you want.

The children's opinions since October have shown that several factors/themes including: format; talk for writing; technical aspects and spelling, punctuation and grammar have been removed as categories that were suggested to improve writing in the classroom. Although, as noted above spelling, punctuation and grammar are factors which were listed as negative aspects of writing. The key themes that remain are children's desire to use ICT more in their work and that the content/context of their work are main issues. 

How do you feel our project has impacted upon your writing?

• The Magpie books have been a successful strategy in encouraging children to record their ideas which later were used to inspire writing. 

The Magpie books helped me be more creative. 

The Magpie books helped me by letting me jot down my notes. 

I love recording and jotting down good words. 

• The children's responses showed that they felt inspired and more able to be creative in their writing. 

It has made me feel a lot different about writing.

It has made a huge impact.

It has made a huge impact because it has made my writing more fun and exciting. 

It has impacted upon my writing by making me think of better words. 

Helping us to find exciting word and inspiring us with our writing. 

I think I have really improved in my writing and I can make more sentences which are less boring.

I liked the writing challenges because they inspired me to write stories. 

Because of all the visiting it was good to take your imagination to another level. 

Examples from the children's magpie books