New campaign for children's writing
Posted on Thursday, April 26, 2018
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Bestselling author Cressida Cowell is launching a new campaign for schools - Free Writing Friday - to encourage writing for pleasure.
The campaign hopes to inspire children to write whatever they choose in a designated notebook during short periods on Fridays. All teachers, but especially those of Key Stage 2 classes, will be encouraged to allow children to free write in a notebook, which is off limits to teachers and parents, allowing children the freedom to write whatever and however they choose, without the fear of criticism. The campaign is being supported by Hachette Children's Group and the National Literacy Trust. Research from the NLT shows that writing for enjoyment boosts a child's writing behaviour, confidence, motivation and academic attainment. Schools can download writing advice and tips via the website, below, and enter a competition to win class sets of The Wizards of Once notebook. Cressida, who is as passionate about children's writing for pleasure as she is about children's reading, says the idea for Free Writing Friday came organically from the response she gives to hundreds of teachers, parents and children who have asked her how to encourage creative thinking. "My answer always is: every child should have one notebook that no one corrects, in which the child writes and draws purely for the joy of it. Children are naturally creative and imaginative thinkers, but can get put off writing by the corrective red pen. "In this one notebook, spelling, grammar and neatness should be completely irrelevant - what's important should be the ideas, and that it's fun. I also want to emphasise how important creativity is both to individuals' achievement and to the UK economy the creative industries made 92 billion for the UK in 2017. Whatever your path in life, though, creative thinking is integral to success."
