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100 Word Challenge is growing! 

That is great news. It means that even more children are being inspired to share their writing with the world.

In case you have not heard of 100WC (where have you been! ) it is a weekly writing challenge where children are given a prompt of a few words or a picture. They then write a creative piece using just 100 words. This is posted on their class blog then linked to 100wc.net where a team of volunteers comment on them.

It is the comments that have made such a difference to the writing. Getting a comment from someone outside of the class has given these young writers a purpose beyond pleasing Miss or Sir. This global audience has had a huge impact on the quality of writing but also on confidence and motivation.

As it is growing though, it means I need more folks to comment and join Team100WC. Can you help?

Perhaps if your school takes part you could find a teacher or a parent to join!

You would have some guidelines and some numbers (maximum of 10) to visit each week. It takes the maximum of an hour across a week as they are posted from Monday through to Saturday.

These young writers really do need your support so please get in touch either by leaving a comment below or contacting me on twitter @theheadsoffice

THANK YOU!

The 100 word challenge was just one of a number of different projects I signed up for but little did I realise at the time how important the 100 word challenge was to become to my class of 2012 / 2013 and the incredible impact doing it every week would have on my pupils creative writing, punctuation, self-esteem and so much more. I was also unprepared for how the children’s literacy skills steadily improved in front of my eyes with children going from “I don’t know what to write” to putting their heads straight down the minute they got the prompt and hey presto 100 words in no time!

At this point, 5 months into the challenges, I haven’t heard the phrase “I don’t know what to write” for a long, long time. Instead what I hear is “Is the prompt up yet”? and ”when is the showcase up?. As for the delight when a member of our class is showcased, the joy is amazing to see. The writing, the plots, the cliff hangers, and all the different takes on the prompt have also been amazing to watch as each child has developed in a different way as a 100wc writer.

So what’s so special about the 100 wc?

The children love the idea of a new prompt every week and they can’t wait to see what it is. There is no limit on where they can go with the prompts especially as they are all so different, the only limit of course is the 100 words which they have grown to love. For children with literacy issues who up to now found creative writing and indeed any kind of writing difficult, the 100 word limit means the challenge is so do-able and these children have prgressed from needing a lot of help with the initial 100wc to now writing it all themselves with some editing and suggestions from me. For the child who is very able to write pages and pages of creative writing the 100 word limit has really forced them to up their game and think about every single word they write. As a result their editing skills have really improved and now I rarely have to edit the challenges from these children.

The children absolutely love getting comments from Team 100wc – I think it makes them feel so special. We make a big deal about the comments every week noting where the comments come from. They love the idea of comments coming from places as far away as Australia as to them that is the other side of the world and very exotic. As for a comment from the headteacher herself, that really excites them!

The children have become so good at commenting on each other’s stories and commenting on other 100 word challenges on the 100wc.net site. Their comments have improved along with their writing and have developed from one word comments to very substantial comments.

As I mentioned, I signed up to a lot of projects via twitter prior to September but I can safely say the 100 wc is the project which has become such an important part of our school week from reading the initial prompt to writing and editing the 100wc and from reading the challenges written by classmates and global classmates to replying to the comments they receive on their own 100 word challenges. In fact the 100 wc is a truly global project.

The 100 wc has really gripped the imagination of the children and even though they have never met “the lady who does the 100 wc” they think that she is one of the kindest ladies there are. They feel they have a special relationship with Julia Skinner and call her The Head teacher because they know her twitter name. For many teachers with an overcrowded curriculum projects like the 100 word challenge can be difficult to take on and sustain. My personal experience of Julia Skinner’s patience, advice, encouragement, availability and instant reaction to any questions or problems I have is a large part of the reason why the 100wc is so successful in my classroom.

It is a very simple concept:

• A prompt is set
• Children write a creative piece using the prompt and 100 additional words
• This is posted on the class blog
• It is also linked to 100wc.net where a team of volunteers comment on each post

Each week over 400+ entries are posted. Children are encouraged to visit each others posts and leave comments.

Such is its success, that I was approached to set a parallel challenget in the Welsh language. This is gradually taking off so having seen some comments on twitter about MFL courses, I am considering other languages.

The key to the success of such a challenge is to gather a team to comment. It is pointless having youngsters writing if no-one is going to encourage them. Then we need to know there will be young people under 16 who would like to take up the challenge!

If you are reading this, I'm hoping you have some interest in such a project. I would like you to let me know:

A) If you are able to read and write French or Spanish and would be prepared to comment on a few pieces

B) You know of some young linguists who would be interested.

Either leave a comment below or tweet me @theheadsoffice and let's see if we can spread the challenge!

 The well-heralded snow arrived as they said it would but for many Head teachers there was still a problem yesterday morning. Should they close the school or keep it open? Gone are the days when the Head would live next door to the school. Nowadays, they, like their staff can live a distance so when snow arrives, it is often down to the caretaker to be on hand giving an eye witness account to help the decision.

Let’s assume that staff are able to get in and there is a safe ratio of adults to children for the school day to go ahead. As Irvin Berlin tells us ‘There maybe trouble ahead’!

Snow is a great addition to the curriculum and I for one feel that children should be able to get out in it and do some learning that they (in many areas) rarely get the chance to do. However, that is not always accepted by parents who do not want their children out in the cold getting wet.

Then there are the Health and Safety police. What happens if a child slips and hurts themselves? Has the Head made sure that all the paths leading to school have been cleared ? Is the caretaker watching constantly for a drop in temperature to turn that wonderful fluffy stuff into an ice rink?

Then it snows again! The Head has to turn their consideration to their staff and getting them home safely. So the decision is made to close the school early. Thanks to modern technology with texts most can be contacted but there is often one or two stragglers left which mean the Head’s journey home is later and more dangerous than it might be.

If the decision to close had been taken at 7.30am, what might the results have been? Grumbles from some parents for the inconvenience whilst others are grateful not to have to leave the warmth of home. I once also had a letter from my Local Authority telling me that as I had closed the school and lost the children a days learning, I would be expected to find another day (taken from holidays) to make it up!

So, there is no right way to deal with snow. If you are a Head, what did you do? If you are a parent, did you agree with the decision taken? What about Monday?!

As a writer, I know how it feels to get comments from my readers. They provide me with an opportunity to have a discussion with them, to learn their views and extend my own knowledge. All writers want their work read.

Imagine now how it must feel to be a child who maybe finds writing difficult but who has managed to produce a short piece of writing that has been posted on the class blog. You could make a huge difference by stopping, reading and leaving a comment.

The 100 Word Challenge and the 5 Sentence Challenge provide the vehicle for both writer and reader. As the children only have to write 100 words, it encourages those reluctant writers to have a go whilst challenging the able scribes to be circumspect with their words.

As a member of Team100, you will be given a maximum of 10 posts to comment on each week. Having a few words of encouragement from someone outside of school has been shown to make a HUGE difference not only to the quality of their writing but also to children’s confidence and motivation in many aspects of school work.

The Word Challenges are really having an impact in classes across the world. Do visit 100wc.net and read all the tabs to see comments from children and teachers on how much your comments mean!

This can be one resolution that will really make the New Year great. After all, IT’S ONLY 100 Words!

Get in touch via a comment below or tweet me @theheadsoffice

or fill out a comment form but 

DO IT!

Guess what? I’ve been nominated!! The category is for ‘Lifetime Award’ which seems to be pretty massive! The award is not so much for this blog but for:

 100 Word Challenge

5 Sentence Challenge

100 Word Challenge Cymru (version in the Welsh medium)

I’m delighted and so flattered that my work has been thought good enough to be nominated. Now – here comes the cheeky bit.

If you have taken part in any of these projects and have enjoyed it, I would love your vote! Obviously, if you haven’t enjoyed them then I understand. To vote you have to go to

VOTE HERE

Go to the drop down menu and scroll down until you find ‘Life time’. A list of names will appear. Scroll down until you see Julia Skinner, click then go to the bottom and vote!

Thank you all for your support this year. It has certainly been mammouth but I’m sure 2013 will be even better!

This is something a little different for me and I almost missed it but here are some nominations for this year’s awards. Short and sweet but the BEST!:

Best Class Blog: 6D High Lawn, Bolton - great supporters of the Word Challenges and fabulous bloggers

Best Mobile App: @nightzookeeper’s Drawing torch app Fantastic support for children’s creativity

Best Group Blog: Digital Leader Network Brilliant example of youngsters leading the way

Lifetime Award: David Mitchell For all the support and ideas he has shared

Her son was that child who was known to everyone in the school. He was a big lad. Not fat but stocky and very strong. He loved to run which was a real problem given the long corridors that the school had.

As a junior school, we had been provided with warning notices from our feeder infant school of what to expect when he joined us in Year 3. Some of us tutted and shook our heads when we read some of the apparent misdemeanours he had committed. Surely it couldn’t be true? Not from a child so young!

Despite all our positive thoughts and preparations, it wasn’t long before we realised we needed help to support this lad and so began his journey into SEN that was to last for years.

Over the four years he was with us, we learnt a great deal about him and his condition and met lots of acronyms. He was always hot and if you could cool him down things were much calmer. His family was very supportive and understood when he had to excluded at times for being such a danger to the other children. He was fearless so never seemed a danger to himself.

Unfortunately, we never found the magic letters. I have to believe they were magic and only known to a small number of people because despite our research and careful monitoring of hi progress or lack of, we never got the help he really needed. We knew when we sent him off to secondary that he would not last long.

Mum confirmed that he had very little time in a school after the age of eleven but she said with resignation in her voice – ‘he got 2 hours tuition at home each week’. Her response to my original question was that he is doing well. She reeled off all the sports he is involved in and told me how the rugby had been especially good because he had to learn how to channel the aggression he felt.

All told, she was really pleased with his progress. Her last comment however made me very sad, ashamed and dejected.

‘He finally got his diagnosis though. Three weeks after he should have left school. It was all those things you thought – OCD, ADHD, XYY Chromosome Deficiency Disorder, aspergers.’

Ah – Magic letters!