About this Event
Note: the ticket price of £54.88 is for all 8 sessions.
Target audience: Anyone working with young children from 3-7 years old, with a particular focus on Early Level. This course is also important for leaders who wish to develop their own knowledge and support their teams in this area.
Overview: This eight-part online course* is designed to guide those working with young children in supporting the complex and multi-faceted process of becoming a writer. The sessions are structured to offer a comprehensive understanding of early writing development, highlighting practical strategies for fostering a love of writing in young children while building the foundational skills they need.
More detail: During the time that Kym led the local authority early year’s team in Lewisham, London, outcomes went from being amongst the lowest in the country to being consistently amongst the highest, despite low baseline levels. This was due to high-quality, play-based practice being consistently implemented across schools and settings, which led to Lewisham being named one of the top authorities in England for children’s development, and the place where children at risk of educational disadvantage were achieving the highest outcomes in areas such as writing.
*All sessions will be recorded and available for a limited period.
In this course, Kym will share the practical detail of how schools and settings achieved these improvements and will highlight the importance of making the journey into writing joyful, connected to children's interests, and integrated with their play. She will provide practical ideas, strategies and real examples that illustrate how this can look in practice.
Delegates will explore how to help children develop the physical, linguistic, and cognitive foundations for becoming a writer at the earliest stage, as well as how to ensure children stay engaged as they become more competent writers. Sessions will address how to create supportive learning environments and experiences for writing, pointers for assessing writing development, ensuring an appropriate blend of intentional and responsive teaching and how to scaffold writing development in play. Throughout the course, attendees will also hear how to support children who are operating at an earlier stage of writing development than their peers, and gain ideas for igniting interest in writing for those that appear reluctant to engage.
Session Breakdown:
Session 1: The Journey into Writing: Avoiding Pitfalls and Embracing Joy
Mon 21st October 4-5.30pm
This session explores the complexity of becoming a writer and how schools can inadvertently make writing more challenging for young children. Participants will examine common practices that may disconnect writing from children's lives and interests. The session will introduce strategies for creating a more joyful and connected journey into writing, ensuring that children find writing meaningful and accessible.
Session 2: Creating a Writing-Friendly Learning Environment
Mon November 25th 4-5.30pm
Participants will learn how to create a learning environment that supports early writing development through play, both indoors and outdoors. This session focuses on integrating writing opportunities into various areas of play provision, that help children explore writing naturally as part of their self-led learning. Attendees will see lots of real examples practical ideas for setting up spaces that encourage writing through different types of play.
Session 3: Language as the Foundation for Writing
Mon December 9th 4-5.30pm
This session highlights the critical role of language development in writing. Delegates will explore the broader aspects of supporting children's language skills and learn how to help children understand the connection between spoken language and writing. The session will include strategies for scribing children’s comments, ideas, and stories to show how talk can be transformed into written words.
Session 4: Developing the Physical Skills for Writing
Mon January 20th 4-5.30pm
In this session, the focus will be on the physical development necessary for writing, particularly gross and fine motor skills. Participants will learn about the importance of these skills in handwriting and discover practical activities to help children develop the physical abilities they need to write confidently and comfortably.
Session 5: Assessing Children’s Writing: Understanding and Planning Next Steps
Mon February 24th 4-5.30pm
This session will equip delegates with the tools to assess children’s early mark-making and writing development effectively. They will learn to identify the core aspects of emergent writing, how to recognise what children already know and can do and determine what might be the next steps in their writing journey. The session will focus on understanding the developmental trajectory of writing and how to support it appropriately.
Session 6: Scaffolding Writing through Play: The Adult's Role
Mon March 24th 4-5.30pm
This session focuses on how adults can scaffold children's early writing development through play. Kym will explore strategies for integrating writing naturally into play episodes and for helping children see how writing can enhance their play. The session will emphasise responsive teaching, showing how adults can guide and extend children's writing in ways that are meaningful and engaging within the context of their play.
Session 7: Rethinking Adult-Led Writing Opportunities
Mon April 28th 4-5.30pm
In this session, participants will reflect on their current approaches to intentional teaching in writing. The focus will be on rethinking adult-led writing activities to ensure they truly build on children's interests and passions. Kym will explore how to design writing opportunities that inspire and engage children, making writing a more relevant and exciting part of their learning journey.
Session 8: Supporting Reluctant and Struggling Writers
Mon May 19th 4-5.30pm
The final session addresses how to support children who are reluctant writers or who struggle with specific aspects of writing. Kym will introduce a clear framework for helping these children make progress while also developing a love for writing. The session will focus on strategies to make writing meaningful and relevant to these children’s lives, ensuring they see writing as a valuable and enjoyable activity.
About Kym
Based in England, Kym also works in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, as well as overseas. She is particularly interested in working to improve the learning and life chances of children who might be considered at risk of educational disadvantage.
As well as providing keynote speeches and training sessions, she also spends a lot of time working directly with schools and settings to help them evaluate and improve the quality of their offer.
She is well-known for her engaging delivery style, deep understanding of children’s development and learning needs, and the impact her work around play has on outcomes for young children.
Kym hosts an online early years professional development platform, The Place to Learn, which provides whole school access to her self-study courses and live webinars, Further information is available here: Kym Scott Consultancy.
She also co-leads PressPlay, an international online programme promoting play-driven practice right through primary education. Further information is available here: Let's PressPlay.
Event Venue
Online
GBP 54.88
