Widnes pupils become teachers in novel writing day

Wade Deacon students led a series of activities at Farnworth CE Primary School as part of The Big Write.

They planned different sessions for each age group.

They read Jasper’s Beanstalk to reception class and invited them to select their favourite character and draw a new cover for the book.

Older pupils were challenged to write a diary about a day in the life of as Tudor.

Others were shown how to write a review of Horrible Histories.

Year six pupils became reporters as they were challenged to write about various events and sports activities.

Wade Deacon English teacher Heather Smith said: “This was a great opportunity for our students to plan and lead activities.

“The writing was of a very high standard with some real talent on display. Our students had a great experience and it has really fired their enthusiasm for teaching as a future career.”

Farnworth literacy leader Lynne Le Marinel said: “Our links with Wade Deacon are very strong and this is another example of how we can be mutually supportive of each other.

“Writing is always a huge priority for us and Wade Deacon’s students provided some excellent learning opportunities for our pupils who had a great day learning and interacting with them.”

Wade Deacon English teacher Howard Mealey, who led the event, said: “We selected 32 of our Year 9 students who are all strong writers and have an interest in working with young people in the future. Students split into 2 groups looking after different year groups simultaneously and looking at different elements of writing linked to the topics that the children have been doing .

“It was a fantastic day. We had members of our senior leadership team dropping in and Farnworth’s Governors were also there and full of praise for the initiative.”

Wade Deacon’s debating students run a club at Farnworth School every Monday.

They plan to start a similar one at West Bank Primary School and hope that teams from the two schools will compete against each other.