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< 500 Words < Everything about 500 Words

Lucy Coy, co-founder of and previous school leader, shares her thoughts on how headteachers can embrace 500 Words this year and the benefits it can bring to your school.

HeadteacherChat was founded by myself and my husband, both experienced school leaders, as we wanted to reach out to leaders in other areas, not only to show our support, but to also share ideas, best practice, and to work collaboratively.

Our aim was to help each other, as we knew that there was a lot we could learn from each other. We also wanted to celebrate the work that school leaders do, and so we created a platform that enables that to happen.

Because we are passionate about instilling a love of writing and storytelling in children and young people, and actively encourage teachers to take part as it’s a great way to engage children in firstly listening to stories, but also to love writing them.

One of my fondest memories of being a teacher was listening to children telling me about the stories they had written. It was magical, and as a leader, it’s a great way to instill a love of reading and writing and to see examples of children’s writing across your school.

• Because it celebrates a love of stories and writing across your school.

• It promotes the teaching of writing skills and helps children to enhance their creative writing ability and enjoyment.

• It fosters creativity and encourages children to use their imagination to explore unique story ideas and concepts.

• It introduces children to the magic of a good story, allowing them to explore other worlds and to ignite their imagination.

• It’s a great way to celebrate children’s writing and to showcase their work.

• It’s an opportunity to explore different genres such as adventure, mystery, fantasy and more.

• It’s accessible for all, and actively promotes diversity and inclusion.

• Start the beginning of the year by celebrating children’s writing, and instilling a love of stories.

• Gain a snapshot of your children’s writing at the beginning of the school year, (potentially across your whole school).

• Children of all abilities and backgrounds can take part. To support this, the ����ý have partnered with to offer a £50 book token, plus three £10 pupil book tokens, to schools in most deprived areas.

• Across the UK, every school with higher than 50% free school meals, or the equivalent eligibility, will qualify. The ����ý will be using information from the schools database to determine eligibility. All schools need to do is submit their stories and once the competition closes in November we will contact schools directly and share the rewards.

• Be a part of the incredible research being carried out by the Oxford University Press, who have collected almost a million stories since the competition began. Their research helps teachers to know what our children are interested in, from politics to world events, to celebrities and football, and how that is changing over time.

Yes! You can enter as many as you would like. We think it’s a great opportunity to see all of your children’s writing in one snapshot, and therefore it’s a useful tool to assess children’s writing. You can use this information for your school development and improvement plan.

One thing you will need to consider is that an adult will need to enter each child’s entry, and that their parent or guardian will need to have given permission to do so. Any adult can submit a child’s entry, it doesn’t have to be a teacher, as long as they have access to the ����ý 500 words website.

Step 1: Plan which year groups will take part, how and when.

Step 2: Share the information with teachers here

Step 3: Inspire your pupils by holding an assembly

Step 4: Watch the 30 minute 500 Words live lesson. More details will be announced shortly.

It’s very easy for teachers to be involved, and it’s an excellent opportunity for teachers to inspire children in writing and also to gather an insight as to how they write.

All of the teaching resources are readily available from the ����ý website, and has advice for submitting stories and alternative ways to submit entries here.

• Hold an open evening with all the children’s writing on display for everyone to enjoy.

• Invite authors into school and make it a special story writing day or week.

• Invite parents/guardians in to read stories, and to share stories that they may have written themselves.

• Link the stories to your current topics so that children can further immerse themselves in their learning.

Need more inspiration?