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.

14?

To all the parents of 9 year olds getting stressed, in my 22 years teaching I have never been handed a piece of independent writing like this.
Maybe it's just my classes.

It's such a teachery thing to do to use a jargon word without bothering to explain it. I bet you're a teacher.

So how old, OP?

I'm a primary teacher. Year 5/6 at the earliest and that would only be the high ability children. Most kids won't be writing like that until secondary. Those saying 8 year olds have a screw loose

She’s 8.
she sat and wrote it tonight - on her own - definitely no chat GPT although I can kind of see that now someone has said it 🤣
Not sure where ‘foot’ came from. Possibly because she reads and maybe has come across the expression a ‘foot of snow’ or something? If I ask her she probably won’t remember.
She’s just gone into year 4 and is 9 in January.

I ask because I think I do her a disservice. She has a very bright older brother and I tend to think she isn’t as able and would largely describe her as average even though I am aware her reports set her as exceeding.
I think I need to do better at not underestimating her. I was impressed with her vocabulary - I would not have expected words like ‘sated’ or ‘kindling.’
I will say they have been doing fire poetry at school and I don’t know if some of this vocab has been acquired from there.

I’ve taught across all age groups and have had Year 5s who could write like this and Year 11s who couldn’t write something half as well written. It is very good, regardless of their age.

It’s definitely not typical for 9 @Martymcfly24 but the chances are the writer is young because otherwise why is the poster posting?

How long is a piece of string? Could be anything from about 8 to an adult. Some slightly odd choices of language if it's quite a young child, which would make me wonder if it involved some AI use. Advanced vocab but quite a few spelling errors.

8-10

12/13

I think it’s where you give a template or suggested sentences based on an existing poem or piece of descriptive narrative, and children then use that as a basis to write their own.

I must admit that’s how it read to me. I would write all sorts of imaginative, descriptive and mature stuff when I was a child - inspired by books and things we learned at school. Life has drained any of that out of me now unfortunately!

She’s isn’t average @Fluffylikeacoconut - she’s exceptional.

It's very accomplished for an 8 year old, but not impossibly so.

I think it sounds like ChatGPT because it uses quite a rich vocabulary but it doesn't all make sense. (ChatGPT often sounds like a precious child that knows words but doesn't know things.)

I'd say a 9/10 year old who reads a lot would write this. Sadly once kids get to secondary school there seems to be a very limited opportunity for creative writing.

I like it, it's lovely and sounds mature and coherent. Your dc is definitely bright.

13

It is a really nice piece of prose, and whilst everyone says how awful we are at teaching English in school this is exactly the kind of thing upper ability kids can produce when they are taught the building blocks and given word banks and opportunities to stretch their reading,

Op if she likes to sit and write encourage her - buy her a writing notebook and proper grown up thesaurus - I had a proper one at her age and I would sit and chase the page links to find new words and then find out their meanings in my dictionary.

And you’re right- don’t underestimate her. She has talent.

Just seen she's 8. A lovely piece of writing op and I'm impressed she did it on her own rather than in school. I bet she loves reading.

This is incredible for an 8 year old. Please don't listen to people saying it's normal, most adults can't write like that 🙄

What's fire poetry?

I’d go for young but bright. It’s horrifically overwritten but obviously shows a lively imagination and very wide vocab. So someone reading above their age bracket who hasn’t quite learnt that “less is more” when you get into actual adult prose style not SATS “scaffolded” box ticking.

Smart 10yo at youngest.

It's such a teachery thing to do to use a jargon word without bothering to explain it. I bet you're a teacher.

Supported then. It reads like supported writing.

It's not incredible, but it's lovely. This is how they learn to write at my dc's junior school.