If you’re searching for happy, successful 1:1 English tuition – no groups – please get in touch at leemottram@11plushappy.com, and visit http://www.11plushappy.com to learn more about me, my books and my lessons.
Let’s help your child reach their highest mark!
Regards, Lee Mottram,
BA English Literature, PGCE Primary Teacher, 17 years tuition experience
24-25 Successes include: Tiffin Girls & Boys, Sutton Grammar, Nonsuch Girls, Wallington Girls, Wallington Boys, Halifax Grammars, KGS, Freemans
Boo! A very short hello as you prepare for 11plus pr…oh, no , sorry, I mean Halloween today. If you’re serious about your child being the best prepared they can be for their creative writing exam, it’s wise to dip into different sources and formats of tests, as well as alternative advice and how-to’s. You gain the widest net of knowledge and perspective. That goes for resources too. There are books on my website that are dedicated to 11plus creative writing, that will give you a fresh, expert (I tutor 6 days a week) approach to transforming or enhancing your child’s writing.
There’s also this blog, where I post daily thoughts and strategies to improve your child’s writing, along with other aspects of the 11plus English exam. Think of it as the networking equivalent of an after school or before school parent teacher meeting, with insider advice you can put into practice as fast as a firework, and much faster than carving a pumpkin. So please, do subscribe, whether you’re a parent, grandparent, fellow tutor or teacher, or anyone helping children learn, and let me help you along the wonderful road that is the 11plus.
11plus Happy Halloween!
Lee, London.
Hello Planny-parent! Time to get plannish! We know planning stories in exams has a number of advantages:
How can you help your child plan better? By giving them times when they just practise imagining and writing plans, separate from actually writing the story. Focus on having fun with the planning. You can frame it like a fun factory or bakery, where their job is just to generate and churn out four or five plans for a prompt.
HAPPY TIP: Be generous with time first if needed. 15 minutes per plan, if you are talking it through together and playing with options. Then reduce the time a minute at a time, until we get to the optimal time of around 3 minutes a plan, for a full 40-60 min story.
Look at the gorgeous picture above (and below) of Heather Bridge, from a photograph I bought on holiday in a fantastic Art cafe, The Gallery, in Laurieston, Dumfries and Galloway.
Have your child invent three possible plans for a story inspired by or using this wonderful bridge. Planning something, then letting it go and starting again, is both a strange and wonderful experience. It’s interesting how your child may become attached to the story plan and not want to forget about it. Reassure them that no plan is wasted – they can choose the final plan (or choose more than one plan) to write the story with. This exercise is about trusting your own creative imagination, it’s about your child learning that their imagination can be trusted and also grows the more they practise this skill. It’s about admitting that planning is a skill that we can develop with deliberate practice.
To help, here are three short plans I came up with in a real lesson for the picture of the bridge. Here is the stunning Heather Bridge once more:
Plan 1: Adventure/friendship/funny
Plan 2: Fairytale/legend
Plan 3: Portal Story
Over to you. If your child uses plans for the above picture, please email me them at leemottram@1plushappy.com. I’d love to read them, and will post a few up here to share.
In the meantime, if you think your child would enjoy or benefit from creative writing lessons from a teacher who absolutely loves writing, please do reach out to me. With the 11plus exams nearly over for this year, I’ll be taking on four new online students. I’m currently teaching Y4, Y5, Y8, Y10 and Y11 students, preparing for both the 11plus and GCSE English Language exams, from Halifax to London to Kent. Please email leemottram@11plushappy.com.
Happy Writing!
Lee, London
On Monday, I shared my love of both teaching and writing creative writing, and offered you a tip to help your child combine photographs from a day out into an exciting story. I now add to this three super happy, super important gifts: the photographs!
As I near completion of the 11plus Creative Writing Fiction Models guide, book 3 in the Creative Writing Series, I’ve just finished a story about cakes, and am, this morning, halfway through my last story, a story about two very different trees and a villain called Lord Hardsilver, inspired by a visit to the incredible Port Meirion, a creative writing paradise!
How did I come up with the idea for this latest story? I took countless photos on the day, chose three, and then stared at these three pictures below and imagined a way to connect them.
Aren’t they spectacular? All from one place!
Your child can do the same with photos chosen from a day out anywhere. After choosing three pictures, encourage your child to plan a possible story that links the photos, with between 3-6 steps. HAPPY TIP: Your young writer could even repeat this and come up with several plans for different stories from the same photos, which is a fantastic planning exercise to build planning muscle! To help you see what I mean, here’s one of the rough plans I came up with for the fantastic photos above:
Feel free to use this as a plan for your child’s writing. In any case, the story your child writes for their photos will likely have a structure and connection, since the pictures you took were from the same area, as you can see in the pictures above.
Why does this power of three work? As we spoke about on Monday: “the act of linking the pictures possibly takes advantage of the fact we humans are very good at finding patterns or associations between given objects – even when there is no real link. For example, if I ask you to imagine a story or create a link that could connect a tortoise and a paperclip, your brain will probably do it (perhaps the tortoise is a jewel thief who uses the paperclip to pick locks from a Lego house, keeping the treasure under her shell), whereas, if I had asked you to think of associations that connect only to a tortoise, it’s unlikely your brain would have thought about a paperclip!”
Okay, today is ‘finish story’ day. I really hope you enjoyed the photographs. Port Meirion was a life-changing creative writing experience for me. I came back with a whole book of story ideas.
In the meantime, if you think your child would enjoy or benefit from creative writing lessons from a teacher who absolutely loves writing, please do reach out to me. With the 11plus exams nearly over for this year, I’ll be taking on five online students. I’m currently teaching Y4, Y5, Y8, Y10 and Y11 students, preparing for both the 11plus and GCSE English Language exams, from Halifax to London to Kent. Please email leemottram@11plushappy.com.
Happy Writing!
Lee, London.
Hello! We’re back with Podcast Preview 2, in a season dedicated to the 11plus superhero skill of vocabulary. In our last podcast, we learned why it was vital your child develops a sparkling repertoire of words as they approach the 11plus. Today, I’d like to share 7 ways to kickstart and augment your child’s 11plus vocabulary in your learning sessions and in life around the house. Maybe you’re doing them already – if you are, please let me know how they work for you. Here goes…
When reading new words in stories, plan times – perhaps chapter ends, or every few pages – for you or your child to write the word down and look up its meaning. Then take a handful of words and write them into a small paragraph, or a few sentences in ANY kind of text: a silly poem, a shopping list, a letter or email to a relative, a name tag on a plant, a story, a description whatever you can both think of. Sometimes, unusual texts will stick in the mind. Imagine you’ve written adjectives on separate plant pots in your garden or kitchen; they’re there all the time, so your child will be reminded of them if they’re playing near them or watering them. You can gamify this quite easily. “Mahesh, go and water the omniscient onions.” “Ananya, could you water the Vociferous Violets, please?”
2. Make time to read aloud to each other.
It’s a super way to really identify words that are tricky or new, since if they’re reading alone, you won’t hear your child pause or skip. The danger is, if there’s too many skips without taking the time to understand or share a word and its meaning, it can become frustrating, which can lead to avoiding reading (like the Wuthering Heights student I mentioned in the last post).
3. The Word List Board Game.
Look up word lists. You can google ‘vocabulary KS3/KS2’ or ‘ks2 synonyms for said, lists of verbs, etc. I love two resources out there: Banish Boring Words (it’s American, so just watch for ‘z’s when the UK uses ‘s’s, and the U.S. ‘or’ when the UK uses our (we write behaviour, they write behavior) and Twinkl have a fantastic ‘500 11plus words’ pdf if you are a member. (No affiliate, I just use them a lot in lessons, and I bought both the book and the subscription.) However, there are dozens of free lists out there. With a list, you have ready-made boardgame. Grab a dice (you need a dice as part of your 11plus journey – they turn everything into a game!) and roll through the words. You could go backwards, forwards, have a race to the centre of the list, with you starting at different ends, add any rule you can invent. With the word you land on, speak, check the meaning, and write it into a sentence. Even better, why not say all the words on your way to the word you land on?
Actually, on the issue of writing sentences, I’m coming to the conclusion that as we don’t ask children to write sentences in an exam, it might be better to choose 3-5 words at a time, which your child then puts into a paragraph. The extra advantage of this is it will strengthen the understanding of a word, since your child has to work out how the words can fit together.
4. A super solid strategy is to balance modern lists with lists of words from Victorian literature.
I’m in the process of developing Victorian lists, but if you google ‘victorian vocabulary list 11plus’ or ‘victorian vocabulary from novels’,you’ll be amazed at what you find. I’ll post when my lists are compiled.
5. Start, Middle and End.
To help your child write their paragraph, they could choose three words from a list and agree to use one word in the first sentence, one word in the middle and one in the last sentence. They can try this in a whole story, with one word the last word of the story, you have a fun target to aim for.
6. Choose 5-10 words of the week and make them the whole family’s target.
Points are given each time someone catches someone using the word in speech or in writing. Don’t be too serious with this, have some fun. “My need to burp is abating (lessening),” is absolutely fine! Go with your own family limits.
7. Synonym Bagels for see-through words.
This last one’s a teaser, as next week, we’ll look at the sinister, light-fingered, larcenous, vocabulary-thieving evil of see-through words, for which synonym bagels will come to your child’s rescue.
For now, go have fun, go make some progress, find some new words together, do subscribe, and please pop by my little website, www.11plushappy.com, for books and posts to help you and your child achieve 11 plus success. You can also email me at leemottram@11plushappy.com . Thanks for being adventurous and brave and crazy and loving enough to walk this 11plus path with your child. I hope this first episode has whetted your appetite and got you salivating for some syllables. Sieze the moments, and enjoy the time you have learning together. Start learning, stay learning, stay 11plus happy!
Lee.
Hello! Good to speak to you again. Did you know you’ll soon be able to enjoy 11plushappy as a podcast? (Season 1 is curiously called season 2 – you’ll have to listen to find out why)
Season 2 will be dedicated to one of the major superheroes of happy 11plus learning – vocabulary. Over 10 episodes, you’ll understand why it’s such a life-changing, exam-winning champion, capable of transforming your child’s writing, reading, comprehension and SPAG-skills, both in the months of preparation and during your little genius’s exam itself. Vocabulary is a game changer, which will help your child make rapid gains in 11plus prep. In this blog, I’m giving you advance content script from the podcast, in order to get you started asap. Let’s ring the bell and dive into the lesson.
Episode 1 – Let’s talk words.
Why is vocabulary so important to your child’s 11plus chances? What’s the big/vast/abyss-like/substantial/momentous/consequential/mammoth/far-reaching deal?
Here are 4 reasons why teaching and practising challenging and exciting new words must be a priority in the learning you do with your child. You’ll see that they all mingle and affect each other, so the list of four is just to help us organise our thinking.
A first point to note is that nationally, vocabulary has already been declared a priority by the UK education sector.
For example, post Covid, The Department for Education, the national education body for state schools, guides reception teachers to ‘assess and address gaps in language’ and get busy with ‘extending’ vocabulary.’ For KS1 and 2, the talk is of ‘increasing vocabulary’ and ‘developing’ vocabulary. This was prompted by widespread worry from teachers and parents that post-lockdown children had less vocabulary skills than pre-lockdown, and that deliberate intervention ought to be a must-have.
Away from lockdown, other studies have also explored the important issue of a language gap between different socio-economic groups. One of these, by a team called Hart and Risley, suggested an almost unbelievable gap of 30 million words between the richest and poorest slices of society by the age of about 4, in terms of the words that children have been exposed to or use. The study has holes in it, so here’s a helpful link to a catch-up commentary on it from 2015, which I find sane.
What I love in the study is the beautiful idea of mental nutrition, key examples of which are vocabulary and parent-child talk.
What matters for us here is that if vocabulary is a priority of those in the know, then do you think it might be important for you and your child? Hopefully, your head’s nodding.
2. English as an Additional or Second Language?
Another reason you may wish to focus on teaching new words and exposing your child to a rich varied diet of words is if English is an additional or second language for your child. From a purely time factor, if you’re speaking a non-English language as a home language, your child will be less exposed to English words, and less exposed to sources of English words. Where I am in South London, for example, I teach several ridiculously talented Polish and Sri Lankan children, and we find it enormously helpful to include the learning and writing of new, ambitious vocabulary into most lessons. This boosts confidence, comprehension and eloquence in both speaking and creative writing. Your child can only write with the words they know, hence a continuous stream of new words into your child’s life is going to explode progress in English and supply wonderful, mental nutrition.
3. It makes your child a better writer
Your child will write more interesting words and produce better writing. Better writing leads to higher scores in tests. It just does. True, away from tests, published, highly respected authors often opt for simple language with complete success. For instance, some writers nearly always use ‘said’ for ‘she said’, and steer away from synonyms -whispered, breathed, bellowed, etc. But… these authors are not sitting for 11plus exams, where marks are given – I’ll repeat that – they ARE given – for ambitious, extensive vocabulary. Especially if it’s spelled right, which is another reason to teach it deliberately, to give your child time to learn how to write ambitious words without error.
4. It makes your child a better reader.
Reading improves your vocabulary and vocabulary improves your reading. I recently taught a KS3 English genius, who has an ambition to read the classics. She tragically confessed that she’d stopped reading Wuthering Heights at the first page because there had been too many words she hadn’t understood. Needless to say, we’re addressing that in lessons and she has picked up the book again!
Ultimately, it comes down to EXPOSURE. On radio, tv, and in unplanned conversation, we’re not going to come across the wide vocabulary we need to smash an 11plus entrance exam. We’re just not. Your child can’t learn a word if they don’t come across it, so you can really help by putting handfuls of high-quality words in front of them. Even a few new words each session will lead to huge gains across the months of prep, helping your child understand and recognise the wide range of words that tests can use, such as finding synonyms and antonyms, spelling uncommon words, recognising what part of speech (what kind of word) a word is, missing letters, and so on.
Okay, vocabulary. Over to you. Are you convinced? Persuaded? Cajoled? Influenced? Coaxed? Enticed? In our next blog, released on Tuesday, we’ll look at 7 easy exercises to help your child learn and use new words Maybe you’re doing some or all of them already…
The podcast, 11plushappy English, is due to launch early September, giving you another convenient way to enjoy tips and support as you take your child towards 11plus success.
Have a beautiful week of learning.
Lee, London
Hello! Day 5! All this half-term holiday week, I’ve been re-sharing a 5-day close-up look through an eleven-plus exam-winning model of a persuasive letter, taken from this lovely, sensational book of non-fiction creative writing models.
The aim is to give you immediate steps to improve your child’s writing this week! This is our final day of the catch-up, so let’s explore one way (there are many others!) to end the letter. Below, you can find links to all our lessons from the week, so if you haven’t read these yet, you may wish to start at the start and read the whole letter and lesson in chronological order.
On Monday, we looked at the opening of the letter and the question prompt. On Tuesday, we continued with the first three paragraphs of the letter. On Wednesday, we focused on more-of-less paragraphs. Thursday’s sneak peak moved from the middle of the letter towards the end, showing you effective ways to play with structure. Today, Friday, we close with the close, and explore the essential need to finish the letter with a flourish. The post is laid out in the following way:
Here’s day 5’s final extract. It’s short, but essential in learning how to finish strong. Parting is such sweet sorrow…
Extract continued (Day 5: The Goodbye)
Thank you for reading my letter. I know you will make the right decision.
Consider. Think. Keep Goodview.
Yours Faithfully,
Laney Liketree.
Thank you for reading my letter. I know you will make the right decision.
Consider. Think. Keep Goodview.
Yours Faithfully,
Laney Liketree
…
Amazing. You’ve now had a full sneak peak inside a full persuasive letter. Your child already has a model to build their own with. Go back and read the week’s blogs and put a plan together for their own writing. For many more models, lessons and dedicated vocabulary boosters, you’ll absolutely love the gloriously helpful book from which this extract is taken. You can dive in here
or by clicking on the happy pic!
An important reminder is that your child becomes a better writer through writing deliberately – selecting a few techniques and practising adding these into their writing. This stops them repeating the same ideas and staying at the same level of writing, and will ensure they make constant progress.
A second reminder – do lots of practice writing! 1-2 full essays a week is a great target that will allow them to build these skills over time.
A third reminder: praise their writing, love their writing. Point out improvements with enthusiasm, note any gaps quietly, and add these into their next practice session.
Please let me know what you enjoyed and learned from our time together in this Sneak Peak Week.
Get in touch at leemottram@11plushappy.com
Have a beautiful day of learning.
Lee, London
Hello! All this week, Monday-Friday, I’m reposting fantastically helpful extracts from an eleven-plus exam-winning model of a persuasive letter, taken from my sensational book of non-fiction creative writing models. The aim? Let’s improve your child’s writing THIS WEEK!
Welcome to Wednesday.
On Monday, we looked at the opening of the letter and the question prompt. On Tuesday, we continued with the first three paragraphs of the letter. Today, we continue reading the letter and deep-diving into the lesson that accompanies the model in the book. The post is laid out in the following way:
HAPPY TIP! I want you to focus on the fact today’s paragraphs are more-of-less paragraphs. Larger paragraphs approximately 5-7 sentences long, which explore one main theme each, and which we build with adding more and more related information on this theme. More-of-less paragraphs help your child build their word count, add vocabulary and punctuation, and create a piece of writing that really sticks together. If you take one message from today, it’s to guide and encourage and celebrate your child to write these more-of-less paragraphs.
Okay, let’s go…
Extract continued
Not only does this go against your own advertised commitment to children’s health (I quote the leaflet given out in all schools: ‘Fighting for Fitness, Fighting for Families – Welcome to the 6Fs’), but it also stores up massive health problems for these children as they transition into unhealthy adults. Walking in fresh air for 40 minutes daily is the bare minimum needed to maintain health. Your proposal takes away both the fresh air and the place to walk. Did you know that over 200 years ago, a government minister (someone like you) recognised that parks were the ‘lungs of London’? Lungs are vital to life, yet you plan to remove those lungs. You have no right to perform such a drastic operation.
Leading on from this, the third reason for you to ‘refuse’ the refuse is financial. This, perhaps, is the most important to you. Please be assured I’m not against the council. I love this area and am grateful for the work you do. Yes, I understand you need to create £2,000,000 of savings over the next few years. Unfortunately, you are not seeing the wood for the (soon to be cut down) trees. The unhealthy adults we mentioned above are going to bring a huge burden on another important council service, the NHS. You may save a million only to spend a billion. What kind of planning is this?
Not only
does this go against your own advertised commitment to children’s health, (I quote, ‘Fighting for Families, Fighting for Fitness – Welcome to the 6Fs’)
but it also (the other half of the paired conjunction) stores up massive health problems for these children as they transition into unhealthy adults.
Walking in fresh air for 40 minutes daily is the bare minimum needed to maintain health. Your proposal takes away both the fresh air and the place to walk. Did you know that over 200 years ago, a government minister (someone like you) pointed out that parks were the ‘lungs of London’? Lungs are vital to life, yet you plan to remove those lungs. You have no right to perform such a drastic operation.
Leading on from this,
the third reason to ‘refuse’ the refuse is financial.
In ‘refuse’ as a noun, I stress the first syllable: refuse.
The verb (I refuse to do that) stresses the second syllable: refuse.
This, perhaps,
is the most beneficial to you.
Please be assured, I’m not against the council – I love this area and am grateful for the work you do.
Yes, I understand you need to create £2,000,000 of savings.
Unfortunately, you are not seeing the wood for the (soon to be cut down) trees.
The unhealthy adults we mentioned above are going to bring a huge burden on the NHS – you may save a million only to spend a billion.
What kind of planning is this?
The end of Day 3 is the start of your Happy! How did this extract help you make a breakthrough in helping your child’s writing to grow and improve with a spirit of play and investigation? Does it show you the blisteringly unbelievable power of more-of less paragraphs? How can you add a part of this learning to the next session with your child? Encourage your child to try on sentences and techniques the way they would try on dressing-up clothes or try new skills at a sport. (Psst…Choose a metaphor that matches your child’s interests to help it stick!)
A reminder, here’s the gloriously helpful book this extract comes from. Please do dive in here
or click on the happy pic!
You can also visit the books and downloads page at www.11plushappy.com to see this and other good stuff to help your child pass with a smile.
Please do join me tomorrow (Thursday) for Day 4 of Sneak Peak Week. Thank you for reading, I truly hope it helps ignite your child’s writing in a very practical, happy way.
Please let me know any thoughts, or if something has helped you at leemottram@11plushappy.com.
Have a beautiful day of learning.
Lee, London
Hello! All this week, Monday-Friday, I’m reposting fantastically extracts of an eleven-plus exam-winning model of a persuasive letter, taken from my sensational book of non-fiction creative writing models. One aim – to improve your child’s writing THIS WEEK..
Yesterday, we looked at the opening of the letter and the question prompt.
Today, we’ll explore in fully majestic learning depth the next two paragraphs. We’ll follow a similar path to yesterday:
Time to learn!
Extract continued
How many of these children do you think use the park at some point in their week?
Even the most conservative estimate must be over half. Indeed, 23 sports clubs currently use the fields (statistics again taken from your website, Sports Provision page), along with hundreds of mums, dads and grandparents, all keeping themselves and these thousands of children happy and healthy. Imagine these clubs, these family exercise sessions, wiped out overnight.
This brings me to reason No.2: what comes in place of our healthy, connected community? The disease-bringing stench of burning fumes; the rotting of rubbish and badly-designed, unrecyclable materials that children like me had no say in making. The centre will be a monster unleashed by one generation on another – a clumsy, grown-up footprint stamping on the future of youth. To be clear, a devastating, direct consequence of the refuse centre will be that you send 4000 children indoors to be addicts of T.V. screens, addicts of computer screens, addicts of smartphone screens; you will be creating a community of tablet junkies.
How many of these children do you think use the park at some point in their week?
Even the most conservative estimate must be over half this number. Indeed, twenty-three sports clubs currently use the fields (statistics again taken from your website, on the Sports Provision page), along with hundreds of mums, dads and grandparents,
all keeping themselves and these thousands of children happy and healthy. Imagine these clubs, these family exercise sessions, wiped out overnight.
This brings me to reason number two: what comes in place of our healthy, connected community?
The disease-bringing
stench of burning fumes; the rotting of rubbish and badly-designed unrecyclable materials that we children had no say in making.
The centre will be a monster unleashed by one generation on another –
a clumsy, grown-up footprint stamping on the future of youth.
To be clear, (a link connective to keep the argument flowing and connected) a devastating, direct (exaggeration and alliteration) consequence of the refuse centre will be that you send four thousand children indoors to be addicts of T.V. screens, addicts of computer screens, addicts of smartphone screens – you will be creating a community of tablet junkies.
Day 2 is done…Now, go and have some writing fun! What did you learn from today’s extract and lesson? What will you show your child in your next session? Encourage your young writer to play with these features in their next practice-write. A spirit of fun and adventure. Investigate like a scientist. Please bear in mind that you don’t have to include everything at once. You might focus on the punctuation, or perhaps the extended metaphor, then fold the next feature into the next essay, while keeping the feature/s that your child learned previously. Slowly, you can fold in all the features into a delicious cake mix…and then bake that writing!
A reminder, here’s the gloriously helpful book this extract comes from. Please do dive in here
or click on the happy pic!
You can also visit the books and downloads page at www.11plushappy.com to see this and other good stuff to help your child pass with a smile.
Please do join me tomorrow (Wednesday) for Day 3 of Sneak Peak Week. Thank you for reading, I truly hope it helps ignite your child’s writing in a very practical way.
Please let me know any thoughts, or if something has helped you at leemottram@11plushappy.com.
Have a beautiful day of learning.
Lee, London
Hello! All this week, Monday-Friday, I’m reposting fantastically extracts of an eleven-plus exam-winning model of a persuasive letter, taken from my sensational book of non-fiction creative writing models. One aim – to improve your child’s writing THIS WEEK.
Today, we’re going to look at:
Let’s start learning, let’s stay learning!
Extract
Question: Your favourite playing fields are to be closed and replaced by a refuse (rubbish) and recycling centre to handle the town’s waste. Please write a letter to your local council to persuade them NOT to go ahead with this plan. You must give reasons for your viewpoint. What will you lose? You will be given marks for interesting vocabulary, persuasive writing techniques, punctuation and following the structure of a letter.
Time: 45 mins
(HAPPY TIP: Don’t be tricked into thinking you can write any letter you want. Although a question might not ask you to write a formal letter, persuasive letters should mostly use formal language.)
Freshly Cottage Flats
17 Goodview Court
Sutton
SM6 3PP
Dept of Planning
London Borough of Sutton 20th September, 2026
Dear Sir/Madam
From the address above, you may be alerted to the fact I’m one of the many concerned, frightened and – to be frank – livid residents whose lives will be ruined by the proposed building of the Refuse and Recycling centre on the site of Goodview Playing Fields.
My name is Laney, and as an 11-year-old beginning her life in the area, I stand to be affected more adversely and for far longer than the misguided grown-ups who came up with this nightmarish idea. A refuse centre instead of a park? Thus, I write for an immediate end to this ‘rubbish’ idea. There are three clear reasons to maintain the fields, with both urgent and long-term implications: the high levels of use the park has; the serious harm to children’s health; and a shock reduction in your council’s finances.
First, grasp Goodview as it is. You will know, as the local planning team, that there are 15 – yes, 15 – primary schools in the area, along with 2 secondary schools. Statistics on your own website (truthful facts, we presume) confirm approximately 8000 children study at these schools (7,873 to be exact).
Freshly Cottage Flats
17 Goodview Court
Sutton
SM63PP
Dept of Planning
London Borough of Sutton 20th September, 2040
Dear Sir/Madam
Dear Sir/Madam
From the address above, you may be alerted to the fact I’m one of the many concerned, frightened and – to be frank – livid
residents whose lives will be ruined by the proposed building of the Refuse and Recycling centre on the site of Goodview Playing Fields.
My name is Laney, and as an eleven-year-old beginning her life in the area, I stand to be affected more adversely and for far longer
than the misguided grown-ups
who came up with this nightmarish idea.
A refuse centre instead of a park?
Thus, I write to ask for an immediate end to this ‘rubbish’ idea.
There are three clear reasons to maintain the fields, with both urgent and long-term implications:
the high levels of use the park has; the serious harm to children’s health; and a shock reduction in your council’s finances.
First, grasp Goodview as it is.
You will know,
as the local planning team,
that there are fifteen – yes, fifteen –
primary schools in the area, along with two secondary schools. Statistics on your own website (truthful facts, we presume)
confirm approximately eight thousand children study at these schools (7,873 pupils to be exact).
Boom! That’s it for today. How was that? I hope iso much that it’s helpful in getting you started. The semicolon list of reasons at the start of a persuasive letter is an absolute winner that your child can rely on to start with dazzle! Why not go and teach them this is they are not doing so already. We’ll continue the letter and lesson tomorrow (Tuesday).
If you’re ready for your full copy, then please do dive in here:
or click on the happy pic!
You can also visit the books and downloads page at www.11plushappy.com to see this and other good stuff to help your child pass with a smile.
Please let me know any thoughts, or if something has helped you at leemottram@11plushappy.com.
Have a beautiful day of learning. See you tomorrow, and please do share this with a parent or tutor if you think it may be of help.
Lee, London
