Project: Write the Guide for Next Year

The driving question

What does somebody need to know to run this place after we leave, and can we write it down.

Why this one works

Writing for a real reader who is not the teacher changes everything about how children write. It is also the only project on this list that improves the school permanently.

How it runs

Weeks one and two: work out what is actually known. Most of it lives in people's heads and nobody has written it down.

Weeks three and four: decide the structure and the standard. What every entry must contain.

Weeks five to seven: write and illustrate.

Week eight: test on a younger class. They will fail to follow parts of it, and every failure is a note.

Week nine: revise and produce.

What gets produced

A bound guide, in the office, handed to the next class and to new staff.

Where it goes wrong

Writing what is interesting rather than what is needed. Keep asking what would somebody need on their first Monday, which is a much narrower question than what do we know.

Related

Project Tracker is the one page planning sheet for any of these.