Wednesday 8th April

Hello everyone. How are you all today? All of the staff at Olive Hill say a big hello to you and your families. They wanted me to let you know that they miss you all lots. Your teachers and teaching assistants have written a letter to each of their classes, you should receive it in the post soon (I have also written a letter to your parents, but that is not as exciting as the one you will receive). We received a lovely email today from Miss McQuillan, one of our reading volunteers, and she sends you all her best wishes.

Yesterday, I mentioned that people have been writing for over 5,000 years. Have you been doing any writing for pleasure? Perhaps you have written a letter to someone, or maybe you are writing a story, or a poem, or a song? There are so many things that can inspire you to write. Often, when we go to the author events in Dudley the authors talk about how they have loved writing since a young age and were always writing short stories as a child. Do you aspire to be an author? Or a songwriter?

The great thing about writing for pleasure is the freedom to write about things that interest you, and you can use any pen or pencil that you want (there’s no need for a pen licence) - you could even type it on the computer. Often, if I am writing at home, I like to write in different colour pens to brighten up the page and I like to include little illustrations throughout the text. If you had the choice to write about anything you wanted, what would it be?

There are different types of writing - most of you know the difference between fiction and non-fiction, and you know that there are lots of different styles of both.

Non-fiction is where you write about facts and information about the world around you. It can cover almost any topic. It is about something that really happened or something that really existed. Perhaps you have a particular interest in something and you could create an information book that you could share with your families. It could be about cars, football, pets, volcanoes, pop stars, gardening - anything that interests you. I would write about goats, I think they are so cute and I would love to have some one day.

Fiction is where you use your imagination to write about something that is not true. This is often in the form of a story with characters, setting and a plot. There are many different genres of fiction - romance (there may be some holding of hands), horror (the scary stuff), comedy (with lots of laughter), science fiction (sometimes featuring aliens), adventure (to new places, some with dangers lurking), mystery (will the reader ever discover the truth?) and fantasy (a whole new world of make-believe). Of course, many of these genres cross over - so you could write about an adventure set in space, or a fantasy world with an air of mystery about it. You just need to use your imagination. I have always wanted to write a story about a group of children who find themselves locked in a school over night, they hear a mysterious sound and try to find where it is coming from and their search leads them to a set of stairs they had not seen before … I will need to think about the rest. Will it be scary? Will it be sad? Will it have a happy ending?

Sometimes fiction and non-fiction mixes together. For example , where a story is set in the past (let’s say during the Victorian era) there will be elements of the plot that are based on facts, but the characters could be fictional.

I hope you are now thinking about your own writing. It doesn’t have to be a story or a non-fiction text. You could keep of diary of what it is like to be in your house everyday, or write a poem, or produce a list of all the jobs your family need to complete. We would be delighted to read your writing, please email us at children@olive.dudley.sch.uk.

We miss you and think of you often.

Stay safe