Newington College - Stanmore, NSW.

Wyvern House began implementing Big Write at the beginning of 2018 with various Professional Development sessions throughout the year. The first half of the year was spent familiarising and upskilling teachers with knowledge and understanding of VCOP and Big Write. Mid-year, Wyvern House began trialling the Criterion Scale to assess and measure student achievement and progress. After much success, in 2019 we swung into action with a thorough plan to track the boys’ writing from Kindergarten through to Year 6. We have been fortunate enough to dedicate 2 hours every Thursday to Big Write. It is an incredible experience walking around the campus on a Thursday observing each class celebrating their writing for the week.
 
“I feel that our biggest success in our first year of Big Write has been the increase in boys’ writing fluency and stamina from Kindergarten through to Year 6. The boys are able to write for an extended period of time and thoroughly enjoy celebrating their writing” – Aimee Parkinson, Big Write Facilitator.
 
“My favourite part of Big Write is when I’m finished with it because I feel proud of myself when I have a finished piece of writing” - Kasra Gorjipour, Year 3 Student.
 
“I definitely think my writing has improved because when I started Big Write I didn’t use punctuation well and now I am able to use ellipses and semi colons to make my writing even better” - Daniel Carter, Year 6 student.
 
“The boys’ writing has been taken to a new level of sophistication with the implementation of Big Write and VCOP. I am astounded each day by the dedication and effort of boys as they strive to engage their writer’s voice” - Lulu Sanderson-Green Year 2 Teacher.
 
Overall, it has been a very successful initiative. Even though we are at the early stages, we look forward to further implementation over the next few years to see where we can take our boys’ writing.
 
Watch the video to hear more about why Big Write and VCOP has been an ideal fit for Wyvern House…

Please Note: Newington College is in NSW, Kinder is the Foundation year of schooling. Whilst they encourage 40 mins of writing from the end of Foundation level onward. You need to work at the stamina of the students and remember they will drop back over summer, so Term 1 is always revise and build back up.