Writing for Enjoyment: ideas, activities and writing prompts

Through our Annual Literacy Survey, we've been tracking the engagement of children and young people in writing since 2010, exploring attitudes, behaviours and motivations.

In our 2025 report on Children and young people’s writing, we found:

• Only 1 in 4 (26.6%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said that they enjoy writing in their free time.
• Levels of writing enjoyment have almost halved over the past 15 years, decreasing by 20.2 percentage points since 2010.
• Enjoyment levels dropped for all children and young people in 2025, but the decline was particularly pronounced for primary-aged children, with enjoyment in this group dropping by 6 percentage points over the last year.
• Continuing a 15-year trend, more children and young people receiving free school meals (FSMs) enjoyed writing than their non-FSM peers (31.1% vs 25.0%).

In our research exploring the impact of writing for enjoyment programmes we have drawn together evidence that shows how writing for enjoyment is associated with improved wellbeing, helping individuals process complex emotions, and supports children and young people in expressing themselves. We have also identified a link between writing for enjoyment and writing attainment.

Writing for pleasure activities for schools

This resource provides an innovative range of writing games, prompts and ideas you can use in primary or secondary schools kick-start writing for enjoyment practice in your classroom.

They are designed to celebrate writing, reflect on reasons for writing and encourage everyone to find their own motivation and voice.

There are activities for ages 5 through to 14 (Key Stages 1, 2 and 3/P2 to P7 and S1 to S3).

National Writing Day

Of course, our writing activities are ideal for use all year round, but National Writing Day, which falls on Wednesday 25 June in 2025, provides an ideal springboard for engaging your class with these fun ideas.

More on writing for pleasure

Discover more ways that we can help you to support writing for pleasure:

• Explore the projects offered in our Young Writers programme
• Get ideas for your own writing club in our Everybody Writes: writing groups resource