Unlocking Student Engagement: Brookby Primary School’s Writing Revolution

Brookby Primary School, a small rural primary school in New Zealand’s North Island, has recently transformed its approach to writing.

Like many schools in New Zealand, writing has been a challenge for students at Brookby. The traditional methods of teaching writing weren’t fostering a love of writing and engagement levels were lagging. As part of the Leadership Team, Mel Wiersma recognised the need for change.

Mel trialed Step 2: Sizzling Starts in her classroom and saw an immediate impact on student engagement and the quality of their writing. This before and after example demonstrates the difference just one Step made:

According to Mel, “the ability to just focus on one section at a time had a huge impact on students”. Boring introductions had been replaced with starts that grabbed the reader from the very first sentence. Encouraged by these results, she completed Workshop One (Online) and then used the Narrative Writing Course on Teacher Hub to train staff and roll out the Seven Steps program across the whole school.

The on-demand training videos in the Narrative Writing Course mirror what was covered in the live workshop, helping Mel share the Seven Steps techniques with the whole school. She wanted to ensure she didn’t overwhelm her teachers with having to learn a whole program at once, so she used staff meetings to roll it out in manageable chunks. The Narrative Writing Course is designed to do just that, allowing teachers to learn the concepts Step by Step, at their own pace.

A year on, the increase in student engagement has been remarkable. Students who once shied away from writing are now eager participants. Mel reported,

“We found students who were disengaged quickly developed a love of writing as we worked our way through the Steps … They thrived under the specific teaching of skills and strategies to improve parts of their writing and build engaging writing pieces for their audience.”

The program’s positive impact also extends beyond the students. Teachers have found the resources and shared language invaluable in creating a consistent and supportive writing environment. Mel explained,

“We all love the resources on Teacher Hub. It means teachers can get started with new ideas and resources to teach effectively. Everybody has a shared language, which supports our students and teachers in having learning conversations.”

The Seven Steps has fostered excitement and collaboration among the staff, allowing them to adapt the program to suit their students’ needs. According to Wayne Gillard, Principal at Brookby Primary School:

Integrating Seven Steps with structured literacy has created a powerful synergy in literacy instruction at Brookby Primary School. The explicit teaching of decoding and encoding skills through structured literacy provides a solid base for writing, while Seven Steps encourages students to develop their creativity and love of writing. This blended approach aligns perfectly with the new curriculum’s vision for holistic literacy development.

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Mel concluded, “we’re really excited and we’d love other schools in New Zealand to get on board as well”.

Brookby’s journey is an inspiring example of what can be achieved when schools embrace new ideas and prioritise student engagement in the evolving landscape of New Zealand’s education system.

Interested in transforming writing in your school, or across a network of schools?

We offer training and resource packages of all sizes. Give us a call on 03 9521 8439 or send us an email. Or visit our School workshops page to learn more.