A win-win solution for teachers and students

Three years ago, St Joseph’s Nudgee College onboarded Writer’s Toolbox with a goal to improve student’s literacy.  That goal has been realised as Principal Peter Fullagar relates:

"Nudgee College is a Catholic all boys school, home to 1680 boys across Year 5 to Year 12.  We’ve been here since 1891.  We have a really diverse group of boys from different backgrounds, with a diverse range of learning needs.  Whether it’s boys or girls—but particularly in our case it’s boys—our concern is to try and improve their literacy level.  To try and improve their capacity to write clearly, to write concisely.

As a general rule, boys don’t write as well naturally as we would like.  Since commencing the Writer’s Toolbox programme in 2019, St Joseph’s Nudgee College has seen an improvement in the learning outcomes of our students.

For the boys themselves, it’s given them a framework they can use, and a framework that gives them some building blocks to write upon.  In using that framework, they have built greater confidence in their capacity to write.  Out of that confidence, what we’ve seen in our boys, is that they have actually really started to enjoy the writing process.  They are a lot more animated about what they do in writing, so there is that sense of fun that ultimately comes out.  We have been really pleased with that development.

Across Nudgee College, there has been an increase in writing output.  Written assessment pieces are more concise and we have been impressed with the improvement in cohesion.

As a principal, one of the key benefits I've seen with Writer's Toolbox is that it provides a framework the teacher can use to assist boys to engage with their writing.  And, it gives this common sense of purpose for teachers, and a common sense of language for teachers to use with their boys.  I think that's a 'win win' for boys and their teachers."