I'm not sure if the fact I'm a parent, not an educator, makes me an imposter on this forum, but I thought I'd join and post here anyway. A fair few children at my daughter's school are having trouble with Big Writing, and the Andrell forum seems best place to find out if the issues have been encountered elsewhere - and if so how they were addressed.

Firstly, I think the concept behind Big Writing is fabulous. I'm a writer myself (copywriter by day, novelist by night!), I run monthly live fiction events, and I help organise fiction workshops for adult authors. Writing is a massive part of my life, so when my daughter's school announced they'd be starting Big Writing in Autumn 2009 it struck a chord with me. I was very excited at the opportunity she'd be getting.

Unfortunately, it hasn't quite worked out that way.

I was surprised when just a few weeks into the Autumn term a number of pupils, my daughter included, started to have difficulties with Big Writing. This wasn't about inability to do the work. It was more about the emphasis put on Big Writing, the way it shapes the week. Seven months later, a number of children regularly become very anxious and stressed about the activities and have come to see Big Writing as a test rather than an enjoyable experience.

When we attempt to help our daughter with the Big Talk homework she just gets anxious about getting it wrong, rather than being able to freely express her ideas. As a consequence she dreads coming into school on Fridays.

It's a similar story with other children. This anxiety often appears earlier in the week during the build up to Big Writing, manifesting as tears, aggression, panic, bed-wetting and refusal to attend school.

Clearly this isn't what Big Writing is about.

I don't want to give the impression that Big Writing is somehow broken at the school. This is very much a minority of children I'm writing about. But there are cases throughout the school, regardless of age - the youngest I know is five, the oldest ten. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with ability. None of the children in question have problems with literacy. If anything, I'd say the opposite is true.

In my daughter's case, her issue seems to be about the emphasis put on Big Writing throughout the week. She engages with the topics, but as the week progresses she feels increasingly pressured. It's almost guaranteed that she'll wet the bed on Thursday night and desperately not want to attend school on Friday morning.

When it comes to the Big Write itself, what she produces is excellent. She genuinely enjoys writing, and writes a lot at home - she and I even do our own DIY version of Big Write (always initiated by her), with lights dimmed and a lava lamp switched on.

I can't speak for all the other children, but for my daughter, the pressure is clearly coming from within. We're confident it isn't coming from her teacher or support staff, all of whom have been very helpful with this, trying various things to boost her self esteem and lesson her anxiety. When she talks about it she says what worries her most is 'getting it wrong'. By 'it', she means everything. Spelling, punctuation, all the words. The whole thing. And when she worries she convinces herself that if she gets things wrong everyone (including her teacher and us) will think less of her. The anxiety manifests differently in each child, but in all cases it seems to be an irrational fear, impossible to reason with. More like a phobia than anything else I can explain.

Perhaps it's because it's BIG Write. Not Little Write. Not Insignificant Write. Somehow, it's become Big-Get-It-Right-Or-Else Write

So that's it really. A minority of children throughout the school, feeling unnecessarily pressured by what should (and can) be an empowering approach to writing.

Has anyone come across anything like this before?

Worded, apologies for the delay in responding. I will be sitting down with Ros later today and ask her to respond to your post in full. Thank you for taking the time to post the level of detail you have.

Regards,

Curtis

Hi, welcome to the forum - we are delighted that you have taken the trouble to contact us this way, it is a totally open forum for anyone with an interest in children's education.

I am so sorry about the angst your daughter is experiencing and can assure you that most children love Big Writing and look forward to it. My granddaughter is also a child who worries about things and puts pressure on herself but luckily she has not had this response to Big Writing and it must be a great worry to you. There is absolutely nothing in BW that should stress or pressure any child, it should have no more emotional impact than good teaching of features of text types, reading or maths. You seem to be doing all the right things and I am at a bit of a loss to know what else to suggest, other than telling her how very good she is at it and we all make mistakes sometimes and not to worry about them.

I have pasted a list (below) of what BW is / is not, that I am preparing to go in conference materials. You could possibly use it as a check list for your daughter's experience of BW.

Please let me know how your daughter goes on, I am really so sorry about her reaction.

Sincerely, Ros

What Big Writing is not:

1. Big writing is not the teaching of features of text types or fiction writing, nor is it the teaching of children to respond to stimulus. These will usually be taught in the other literacy sessions in the week. One of those will also be associated with reading.
2. Big Writing is not tedious or onerous.
3. Big Writing is NOT formulaic to the extent of suggesting or dictating how many of each feature should be seen in writing e.g. the number of adjectives.



What Big Writing is:

1. Highly enjoyable and motivating for all children if it is being well taught. If your experience is not like this, it is not being implemented correctly.
2. A process that has an immediate impact (within three to eight weeks usually) on the quality of children’s writing. If it does not, then it is not being implemented correctly.
3. Formulaic in the early stages for some children, as are the initial teaching of all basic skills. However, it soon becomes flexible and creative as confidence and repertoires grow.
4. One session a week from Year 1 to Year 6.
5. One hour per week in Year 1, split into two sessions one before and one after morning playtime, but may be introduced as ten minutes and ten minutes and built up to the full 30/30.
6. One and a half hours in Years 2 to 6 (Year 2 may start back on 30/30 and increase by the start of the second term) 45 minutes before play and 45 minutes after.
7. Preferably towards the end of the week.
8. First 35 minutes = fast, fun work on correct use of vocabulary, connectives, sentence openers and punctuation (V.C.O.P.).
9. Ten minutes of ‘planning time’.
10. After play the children write silently with the candle burning and the extremely soft classical music playing. (Probably Mozart)
11. Those unable to write for the full time would have a choice of at least two other silent activities they can change to without disturbing the class.
12. There is no required length for the children to write to. We usually expect the average child from January of Year 2 to be able to write close to a side of A4 paper and from Year 3 a side, increasing slowly to around a side and a half in upper Key Stage 2. We have never ever suggested 2 sides.
13. The night before Big Writing the children should have Talk Homework to prepare (mentally) what they will write about the next day. This should mean that they bring home a slip of paper that says, ‘My homework tonight is to talk to you about _________. Please may we turn the television off for this?’ We suggest that as many family members as possible should be there for this and that it is most enjoyable when sitting round a table taking a meal together. There is no writing involved in this preparation.
14. Scattered throughout the rest of the week there will be short ‘bursts’ of ‘Make me up...’ activities (known as ‘Bells Work’) to embed new language.
15. There will also be 4 or 5 five minute sessions scattered across the week for ‘Stocking Fillers’ (repeats of 4 or 5 of the newer learning from the last Big Writing session to embed the new learning).
Ros. Wilson 2010