You know your child is capable. They are sharp, curious, full of ideas. But when it comes to putting those ideas on paper, something gets lost. The writing that comes back does not reflect the child you know.
I see this pattern constantly. As a former journalist who wrote for the Sunday Mirror magazine, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Woman & Home, BBC Good Homes, and Retail Week, I spent years learning how to communicate ideas with precision and impact. Now I run 11 Plus Essay, and I work with bright children every week whose writing simply does not do them justice.
The Gap Between Thinking and Writing
In the media, we had a saying: if you cannot explain it clearly, you do not understand it well enough. But with children, the opposite is often true. They understand perfectly well. They just lack the tools to organise and express their thoughts in writing.
This is not a reflection of intelligence. It is a skills gap, and it is one that can be closed remarkably quickly with the right approach. The problem is that most children are never actually taught how to write with structure and purpose. They are told to write, but nobody breaks down the mechanics of what makes writing effective.
What a Journalist Knows About Writing That Schools Miss
When I was writing features for national magazines, every piece had to hook the reader in the first line, sustain their attention throughout, and land with a clear point at the end. Editors were ruthless. If a paragraph did not earn its place, it was cut. That discipline is exactly what I now teach children when they prepare for 11 plus and independent school entrance exams.
Most writing tuition focuses on grammar rules and vocabulary lists. That is like teaching someone to drive by memorising the Highway Code but never getting behind the wheel. My approach is different. I teach children how to plan their writing before they start, how to open with impact, how to build an argument or a narrative that flows logically, and how to finish with a sentence that stays with the reader.
Why the April Intensive Could Be a Turning Point
Over Easter, I am running a live intensive writing course designed specifically for children preparing for selective school entrance exams. This is not a generic holiday club. It is a focused, structured programme where I work directly with a small group of children to transform their writing in just a few days.
I keep numbers deliberately small because writing is personal. Every child needs individual feedback on their specific strengths and weaknesses. You cannot do that in a class of thirty. The children who attend will learn how to structure essays for any prompt, how to use language with confidence and control, and how to write under timed conditions without falling apart.
Book Your Place Now
Places on the April intensive are limited because I keep groups small enough to give every child individual attention. If you want your child’s writing to finally reflect the bright mind you know is there, get in touch today. The combination of live intensive teaching and the structured writing practice available through 11 Plus Essay is something you will not find anywhere else. This is what happens when a journalist turns their attention to education, and your child deserves to benefit from it.
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