Once upon a time, there was a Year 6 boy who dreamed of becoming an author.
As in all the best stories, however, his dreams were threatened by a seemingly insurmountable evil: key stage 2 Sats.
But, if there is one thing authors know how to do, it is to ensure a happy ending. And so they took to Twitter en masse, to provide our hapless hero with the ending he deserved.
Tom Avery, author of Not As We Know It and My Brother’s Shadow, said that he “stil carnt rearly” spell. He added:
Joanna Nadin, who has previously spoken to TES about her belief that overly pedantic adherence to the rules of grammar stifles creativity, backed this up:
And Matt Haig, bestselling author of A Boy Called Christmas, was among those failing to see the point of tests:
Authors were unanimous in their belief that it is ideas, stories and words that matter, rather than grammatical terms. This was summed up by Philip Ardagh, author of the Grubtown Tales and Eddie Dickens series of books:
…and also by young-adult author Non Pratt:
Adult authors chimed in, too. Award-winning romantic novelist Julie Cohen said:
And Waterstones bookseller Leilah Skelton left the boy with the words that every aspiring author longs to hear:
Read the full list of author tweets here.
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