ABSTRACT
Teachers have used journals to note what happens in classrooms, they have interviewed children and have taken time to observe them when writing. This chapter provides glimpses into what has been learnt from the project work which Simon has undertaken with children and their teachers in primary schools, and with students and their teachers in secondary schools and colleges. One infant school wants to learn more about how best to nurture children's creative potential. Children arrive in reception class with very different language backgrounds and different degrees of confidence. The school identified seven different children whose 'writing journeys' are being followed over three years. The school wanted to discover what guided children's composition, and what informed their sense of story. Even before children can transcribe stories of their own, the nature of their play and oral storytelling is full of narrative elements.
