Najma’s Snow: Making Space for Formative Creative Writing

ABSTRACT This essay explores the importance of formative creative writing in schools through a Key Stage 3 Creative Writing lunchtime club. I examine the power of unassessed and unconstrained writing through the work of one Year 8 pupil in the early stages of English language acquisition, who so often chooses to write about snow. Reflecting on her writing, I consider what depth of craft and thinking goes unacknowledged if schools bow to policymakers’ insistence that such writing holds no academic value. Through a critique of my own practice as an Early Career Teacher, I challenge the English national curriculum to recognise the value of formative creative writing opportunities for all pupils.