In the autumn term of 2019, EdufundUK were very pleased to award a grant to fund the majority of a superb writing scheme involving 10 Stevenage primary schools and organised by Sarah Inman, Deputy Headteacher at Pixmore Primary School. The project was a massive success and culminated in a wonderful awards ceremony on Friday 7th February. Here is their press release explaining the event:
The Writing Event of the Year!
The winners of a Writing Project, which has engaged 3000+ children in 10 schools over Stevenage and North Herts, were celebrated last Friday evening at a ceremony in The Lesley Rose Auditorium, The Nobel School. The winners received prizes for Endeavour, Progress and Best Writers from Year 1 to Year 6. Simon Speller, The Mayor of Stevenage, Steven McPartland MP for Stevenage and Tracy Warner (Education Services Director for Herts for Learning) joined Headteacher to give out the prizes. ‘There was palpable excitement in the auditorium’ tweeted Penny Slater (Deputy English Team Leader for Herts for Learning) who attended the event and has been an advocate for the project.
Children from Almond Hill Juniors, Camps Hill Primary, Grange Junior Academy, Hillshott Infants, Martins Wood Primary, Pixmore Junior, Preston Primary, St. Marys Junior and Woolenwick Junior schools were all in attendance to celebrate children’s writing and creativity inspired by ‘Flotsam’ by David Wiesner.
Chairs of Governors were involved in the final decision for Best Writer by judging anonymised pieces of writing. ‘It took governors over 45 minutes to decide the winner of Year 6, such was the quality of writing’ said Kath West, Chair of Governors of Pixmore Junior School.
‘The Writing Project’ is the brain child of Sarah Inman, Deputy Head and English Lead from Pixmore Junior School. Using a creative approach to developing writing, which includes art and drama, the project aims to immerse children in a wordless picture book in order to extend their vocabulary and inspire their writing. This approach had a really positive impact on the writing quality within Pixmore Junior School. The success in school inspired Sarah to firstly share it with other local junior schools last year and then, in her capacity as a Key Stage 2 moderator in 2019, with other schools in the local area.
Alex Evans, Head of Pixmore, said, ‘Sarah’s energy commitment and enthusiasm is second to none; she is a dedicated and inspiring teacher both for children and other professionals’.
The project was sponsored by Edufund UK, one of it’s Directors, Gareth Mottram, was also in attendance giving the prize for Year 5 and Year 6 Best Writers. ‘This approach to writing and the awards could well be a model for other towns and communities to replicate’ he said. Paul Wallace of David’s Bookshop in Letchworth supported the project by providing the books used by all the schools and is working with Sarah and the other English Leaders to decide the book for next year’s project.
Sarah Inman said, ‘Nothing will compare to the many smiley faces we had tonight and the fact that 3 parents from other schools came up and said that the project had inspired their children to write. That’s why I started the project: to prove that every child can write!’
The winners for best writers were:
Year 1 Hillshott Infants, Year 2 Camps Hill Primary, Year 3 Pixmore Juniors, Year 4 Pixmore Juniors, Year 5 Almond Hill Junior, Year 6 St Mary’s Junior