7 Plus Entrance Exams: Creative Writing Tips by our Company Director

How will you teach my child to write a story for the 7 plus exam? 

Easily. It is one of our passions here at Creative Minds Tutors. We adore seeing our younger students develop a love for writing and seeing their stories improving each time they do a new one! 

So, how do we teach story writing? 

This is how. 

1.Start with either: 

A story title 

An image or a set of images

A sentence opener 

2. Plan the introductory paragraph 

Discuss what an introduction is 

Introduce the character – decide who the main character will be and describe him/her

Introduce the setting – decide where the story will take place and describe it

Introduce the problem – decide what the problem will be (remember this could be a good problem or a bad problem!) 

3. Plan the middle paragraph 

Go into detail about the problem

4. Plan the ending 

Resolve the problem

End with a moral or a question 

5. All about the vocabulary 

Adjectives 

Encourage your child to describe everything! Remember that when your child is writing, they are writing with a purpose. They are writing to engage their reader! They want to build a picture in the mind of the reader. Description will be key. Print out an adjective sheet for them to use or encourage them to come up with their own! 

Sentence openers

Use a variety of sentence openers. At this age, children will want to use simple sentence openers like – He, She, Then, When, If. Encourage them to use a variety of sentence openers. Again, print these out and practice using different ones. 

Punctuation 

Check that each sentence has correct punctuation (full stops and commas)

In the middle section, your child will need to include speech punctuation. Check that this is also correct. 

Spelling – Accurate spelling is very important. Encourage your child to check their spelling. Underline, spelling errors and create a spelling test for your child based on the words that they spelled incorrectly. Make it fun and not a problem. It’s absolutely fine to make mistakes! 

6. Re-read 

Get into the habit of editing. Read and re- read the story and make changes or improvements where necessary. 

7. Composition

Once the plan is complete, your child can write their story. Remember that they will need 3 clear paragraphs and all of the above! 

I have written a very informative blog about how story writing is assessed in the 7+ examinations. Read it here.