WOW Days
WOW days, which stands for ‘Write On Westbury’, is an initiative we introduced to raise the profile of writing across the school and encourage our children to write at length.
We hold a WOW day every 3-4 weeks and try to make it really special and fun for the children by using different prompts for writing such as a film clip, poem or image, and create a calm and productive writing environment with candles, soft music, and even biscuits!
Prior to the writing session, teachers send home a piece of ‘talk’ homework the night before to complete with an adult. This helps the child to structure their ideas, identify good words and phrases that they could use with their writing, and prepare them for the writing the next day.
We use our WOW days to explore a variety of genres and text types and the children are always very proud of what they have written on these days. We even have the teachers write with the children to model good habits and show them that we are all writers, no matter what age we are!
After our writing session, which usually lasts for about 45 minutes, we share our work then the children self-assess their writing and try to find an improvement they can make. This is a great way for them to get into the habit of editing their work and being able to see how they can improve.
Since the introduction of WOW days, we have seen a vast improvement in the level of writing across the school as well as improved confidence and enjoyment in writing from a majority of children.
Teachers are always happy for parents to come in and see what their child has written on their WOW day and discuss their progress within English.
Below are some examples of recent WOW day writing:
