Writing for a Real Audience

One of the things I care deeply about in English is helping pupils see that their writing can have a life beyond the classroom. Over the years, pupils have had work published in books, school publications and magazines such as Mind’s Eye, and I hope that seeing their words in print inspires them to keep writing.

Last year, while my Year 7 pupils were writing magazine articles for Mind’s Eye, I decided to lead by example and write one too. I wrote about the journalism work I had been doing with Year 6 and sent it to the English Association. After a long wait, I was thrilled to hear that they would like to publish it.

The current Year 7 pupils then helped bring the article to life by reconstructing some of the classroom scenes, contributing excellent quotes and allowing me to photograph their work without identifying individual pupils. Jude (7P) also kindly brought in his exercise book from last year so that we could include examples of the newspaper writing.

I am very proud of the pupils for helping to make the article possible, and I hope English teachers around the country enjoy reading about what last year’s Year 6 achieved. We will share it with parents when it's published.