It may not be just the children in your setting who need to develop writing skills. June O'Sullivan has a word on staff
Poorly written documents give a bad impression to all the people who really matter to an early years setting: children's parents and carers, Ofsted inspectors and other childcare officials, and the most professional members of staff who want their professionalism reflected in the quality of the nursery documentation.
Managers should not underestimate the impact of bad writing, nor assume that a staff member's good verbal skills will offset the bad impression created by their spelling mistakes, poor grammar and unclear sentence structure. Correcting a spelling mistake on the parents' noticeboard the minute you spot it might be a quick solution to a single problem. But what about a long-term solution? Management guru Charles Handy warns that if there is one general law of communication, it is that we never communicate as effectively as we think we do. Therefore, you can assume that there are more written communication difficulties elsewhere, which can all be improved.
Check the principles
- Reaffirm that the objective of writing is to communicate a message clearly. Do this as part of a staff meeting or a larger operations meeting or as part of the annual training audit.
- Ask staff for their views on the importance of written communication and check that they understand the impression poorly written information can give to colleagues, parents, inspectors and other professionals. A lot of people tend to think that verbal communication is more important. You could point out that it is estimated that only seven per cent of communication is verbal.
- Check what skills staff feel they need to have to be able to write a good report.
- Next, be more specific and acknowledge that there is a problem. Avoid making staff feel inadequate. Many are mortified by their inability to write well and they avoid every opportunity of putting pen to paper. This is not helpful, particularly as these days staff are required to produce written reports more and more, as well as creating a literacy-rich environment for children with lots of labelling, displays, and multi-purpose information.
Look at the organisation
You could also set about changing the culture of your setting. Create a climate that is conducive to allowing staff to make mistakes, acknowledge those mistakes and do something constructive to overcome them.
- Become a proof-reading organisation. Supply a dictionary, thesaurus and grammar book for every nursery.
- Identify a colleague who can proof- read and help you edit any report before sending it. If your colleague cannot understand what is written, then it is likely that the intended reader will have the same difficulty.
- Include books on writing skills in the staff resources. Check that there are enough guides to written reports. Do the children's assessment reports have examples and sample statements to help new staff? Is there a 'house style'? Don't assume that people will automatically know what you expect or how to achieve it - guide them to it.
Audit
Consider a communication skills audit as part of the annual staff training and development assessment. You may find that staff want a range of help, including:
- writing skills
- presentation skills
- study skills workshop
- essay writing (for those completing qualifications)
- interviewing skills
- writing an accident report
- report writing, particularly for children's assessment reports and IEPs
- writing references workshop.
Computer help
Computers are often considered to be the answer to every writer's prayers. However, computers cannot pick up poor grammar or clumsiness in style. Spell-checkers are also not sophisticated enough to be able to judge if a word is used in the right context - for example, in 'The parents were very effected by there news', 'there' and 'effected' will go unchecked. Nevertheless, it may be worth providing staff training for computer word-processing skills. These can be used for wall displays, making the nursery newsletter more attractive, writing clearer information handouts, labelling and so on.
Complete a computer profile of each staff member so they can select courses appropriate to their competence and confidence. Use the profiles to ensure each person is able to reach a personal target and the capable ones are not held back by those who are afraid to turn on the computer. On your team training day you could send the whole team for computer training with an IT company.
Induction
Include a 'Brush up your writing skills workshop' as part of the induction process. Inform the staff about available support and resources. Use the workshop as an opportunity to assess additional needs. Keep the workshop simple, and emphasise:
- key grammar points
- correct punctuation
- key spelling rules (mistakes can cast doubt on the reliability of a whole report)
- how to use paragraphs
- how to avoid jargon
- using plain English to keep writing clear and concise, with short, complete sentences and simple everyday words.
