Gulliver’s Travels is The Write Book for Claremont Primary School

From the cover of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver illustrated by Chris Riddell (Walker Books)

As part of Booktrust’s The Write Book project, I visited two Year 5 classes at Claremont Primary School in north-west London this week to see how they were getting on with their creative writing project, inspired by Gulliver’s Travels. In particular, Claremont has chosen Chris Riddell’s beautifully illustrated version of the story, which they felt would engage less keen readers and writers, and help children with English as a second language enjoy the story.

Earlier in the week, 20 family members came into school to take part in an hour’s writing workshop with the children where they brainstormed ideas for new stories inspired by Gulliver discovering strange new lands. This was a vibrant and inspiring experience for all involved. Teachers described a real buzz in the room, and excitement in pupils about writing with and for parents.

They also reflected that it was an interesting opportunity for them to see the types of support parents gave children around reading and writing, which can feed into their awareness of what individual support those children need in the classroom. The school are thinking about developing more opportunities for parents to be involved in class activities because of this successful session.

The children are now working on their own 'travelling to strange new lands' stories which will be collated into a class book, and dramatic readings of the stories will be performed to families at the end of this term.

The two classes involved in the project have been given their own private writing journals as well as their usual class books, which are for their own free creative writing. They can write in them whenever they like. Less confident writers are being encouraged to draw in them as well as write in these early stages; the writing journals are a long-term strategy to improve writing and encourage a love of writing, and confidence in using the books independently is hoped to grow over time.

The children are really enjoying the project and the opportunity to be totally immersed in Gulliver’s Travels as well as their own storytelling. As well as writing their own Gulliver-inspired travel stories, they are making their own stage-set style Lillput models and maps, and have a sensory station in the classroom which is filled with objects that Gulliver encounters in the story.

During my visit, class teacher Florence Afolabi asked her class to write a sense-rich description of the new setting their character finds themselves in, and pass that description to a partner who would draw the setting based on the writing. This way, Florence described, 'We can see if you have painted a picture in someone’s mind.' Children listened with their eyes closed to their peers reading their own descriptions. Florence asked children 'Is this a picture? Can you see it?' and if not, asked why. What was it about the descriptive writing that might be improved?

In Asmah Batool’s class, the children are responding wonderfully to having the time to devote to their imaginative writing. One pupil who is usually difficult to engage has already written a detailed story and produced some beautiful artwork, inspired by the Gulliver story; Asmah is delighted with how enthusiastic she is, and was amazed by her productivity and independent writing. She described how she almost didn’t want to disturb the pupil by talking to her during class time, as she could see how engaged with writing her story she was – 'in the flow of writing'

Looking forward, the teachers are thinking about setting up a blog where Gulliver – or other fictional travellers – might 'report back' from strange new lands. Having a creative writing blog is a great way to collate and share children’s writing as well as give it an extra status and provide an easier link with parents and families. Over time, the focus of the blog could shift to other writing projects too, even becoming a focus for a creative writing club, and therefore could become a legacy for writing in the school.

Even this early in the project it’s heartening to see that children are enjoying the opportunity to immerse themselves in a classic story and that this is having an impact on their writing, and their enjoyment of writing. As I left one class today, one boy walked out to lunch break still musing about his story. 'Hmmm. The Dark World’s acid sea. I mean, how does that smell?'

That’s a story I want to read.