To ask how old you think the child is who wrote this?

[Fluffylikeacoconut]

I suspect I might get some snarky comments but I’m genuinely curious - people with more experience than me (which is zero) - what age would this be ‘typical’ of. Handwriting is joined and very good.

I am typing it exactly as it is written - spelling and punctuation.

The fire lit a spark - not only in my mind but in a foot deep pile of sharp kindling. It began its first meal, desperate for the first taste of fresh air. It ate and ate until it was sated.
You could feel the tension, taut in the air as the fire grew and grew. Below, the river looked up mesmirised as it slowly crossed beneath a bridge.
The fire danced on, waltzing with the twiggy fingers of the trees, the soft silky coccoons of leaves and the old, moldy, spiky kindling. Ash floated around me like little fairys and once again the fire opened its menacing jaws. As soon as the fire strocked a bright leaf dripping with sap, its thin flamey hands turned to a cold silver and then to stone black. The fire turned and tried to flee before it suddenly disintigreated.
Now the old forest is gone but the ecosystem begins again, I watch the very first bud blossoms bloom. I savour the moment and watch as the old forest rises again, new and beautiful.

It's really good. You should encourage your DD to keep writing - perhaps look out for children's writing competitions she could enter if you think she would enjoy the process of it without too much fixation on the competitive element.

It doesn't matter if she has acquired some of the vocabulary from her school project - we all have to acquire vocabulary from somewhere - the point is she's using it to great effect.

Agreed, a well read, eloquent 12 year old perhaps.
My DC has a terrible English teacher, delivering the 'work', not in the least inspiring, glad to have a job and obviously in it for the pension.

Yeah, I agree with this.

7, ffs.

I don't think it sounds like it was written by a child.

"Sated", "taut", measuring in feet.

I don't know any child who would be capable of writing like this.

A well-read teen, maybe.

English teaching nowadays is like: Here's a bank of words (fire/grief/obsession/this week's topic), now stick them into this scaffolded paragraph I have made for you.

Just like a panini sticker book, where you peel off the individual stickers and put them where they fit best on the pre-printed page. Anyone can do it.

DD1 came back from GCSE English exam: Yeah, got a 9, couldn't help laughing out loud during the exam cos what I wrote was so shit".

Formulaic and devoid of creativity.

There is lots of fantastic vocabulary, accurately applied. If this was a 9 year old they are an exceptionally well-read one; I'll bet there are some adults out there who don't know what 'sated' means.

I have just taught Year 4 (8-9); across our two classes there were probably 3-4 students capable of this, but I would say Year 5/6 more likely. It's Year 6 greater depth in any case, which requires pretty accurate SpAG, coupled with exciting writing. It's hard to award (that is, if you're assessing properly and not just choosing your best students).

Amazing - yes I really would say 'gifted'.

And my '3-4 Year 4 children' is totally theoretical; I never saw writing this good in my year teaching them, but some were using similarly advanced vocab.

Your DD might try the BBC 500 Words competition.

Just over one year old... same as ChatGPT 🤣

DD age 8 wrote something similar to this. She's very good at all aspects of English and has a great vocabulary. I was as equally expressive at her age and wrote many poems and stories.

Think it’s AI generated.!

Absolutely! This is in no way typical of an 8, 9 or 10 year old.

I used to read Roger’s Thesaurus for fun at that sort of age (and we did the Telegraph Quick Crossword as a family every day over breakfast). If she’s well read and is actively trying to use “difficult words” I don’t think this is difficult to believe.

I thought the writing was quite young too because of the heavy use of descriptors etc. it smacks of a primary child using all the words they can find that fit the scene. It’s good for her age but not great writing.
what does worry me though is you think of her as average. You’ve been told repeatedly she’s doing well. I think you said ‘gifted’ and excelling. Why do you continue to put her down in your mind. She’s doing well, you should really acknowledge her. Why compare to her brother anyway? Is he preferred?

@Saschka you must be one of the top percentile for writing at least, similarly talented, but I promise you this is very advanced for age 8 and it would meet GDS for Year 6.

Autocorrect has shafted your Roget's by the way 😂

Argh, autocorrect is a pain. Too late to edit it back.

I find it sad the number of people doing it down for the descriptive language. It's true that they are encouraged in that way at primary school but it's a descriptive paragraph about a fire!

I have found Jane Considine's writing programme to be excellent, and this does explicitly teach other techniques, such as short sentences for a powerful effect, but I still think this is wonderful. I'm beginning to second-guess what I've said, and wonder if I'm so institutionalised that I'm blind to the floweriness of it!

However I stand by my first thought - here is a descriptive passage from My Family and Other Animals, also loaded with expanded noun phrases, similes and metaphors.

😂

I think your child is really talented OP. Most adults couldn't write like this. I would have said yr 7/8.

Gerald Durrel > Hemmingway

While overly flowery language isn't always best for every occasion there is a sort of snobbery about descriptive language which is a pity. Besides before you can start to make creative decisions about what style of language is best for what you are trying to convey you need to become familiar with those different styles. And that's just what the Ops child is doing. And she is good at it and ahead of her age group.

14 maybe. Some of the words & phrases I don't think a Primary age child would know or understand to put in context.

Goodness, I’d be really upset if this was my year 9s! It’s definitely a primary child, around year 4.

I'm a very experienced primary school teacher, who has worked in all sorts of schools across the state sector.

I'd be amazed to see this from any child less than 10/11. However, only if that was a completely independently constructed piece.
A lot of the writing schemes schools use today are very, very structured, and kids do produce stuff like this, but with a huge amount of input and a lot of copying.

You'd be really upset?? Lol

I think you need a reality check on actual problems.

Please let us see a snippet of your Year 9’s writing 👏🏼

It’s actually really sad isn’t it. I have an 8 year old niece. She’s very talented at English and writes really well. Not sure if quite at the level at the OP, but I know she’s talented. She also has ADHD and hates English despite the school praising her for her work because she says she just wants to write her own story but they’re never allowed. They can only write descriptively about the specific story or poem or theme they’re studying. And it is very prescriptive with the grammar and vocab requirements. There’s nothing creative about school creative writing any more which I think is really sad.

Do they actually call it creative writing, or is it billed as the task of understanding rules and alleged rules of grammar and 'composition' (whatever that is)?

My children are adult now, but if they were exposed to this I would be tempted to emphasise that school is school, and they are teaching you to pass exams. Pleasure and creativity are a different matter, and when you write at home do it freely and for fun.

Ditto reading. GCSEs destroy the pleasure of reading the classics and I know I tried to encourage my children to keep their reading-for-pleasure in a separate bubble.