Creating new words

[Bumblebeez]

Unfortunately, those are the rules with which schools have to work.

I know, rules is rules, innit, and I know how lucky DD is to have a gifted teacher with more subtlety and spark.

[yoyo123]

It doesn't mean that we can't be creative within those guidelines, the comment was that to gain a certain level adverbial phrases, a wide range of punctuation, complex sentences etc must be in evidence.

[ToadMum]

Bumblebeez, assuming that the school doesn't have an ideological objection to teaching punctuation and grammar at the level normally expected in year 6, does your DD have an ideological objection to incorporating it into her writing? Would the odd correctly-placed semicolon stifle her creativity too much? However you feel about it, at secondary school she will be expected to express herself in a more formal way in all subjects.

[parent2013]

We are talking about eleven plus exams here where English needs to be treated like Maths. There is a mark scheme and you follow it. You are competing against hundreds who will. One mark lost is twelve places down. Focus on collecting marks. If you don't others will. If you make up words they will simply think you can't spell the right ones.

Would you go into a really important job interview with Senior Management and make up words as you spoke? DG

I echo the comments from Dao. One can be creative in writing descriptions, plots etc but not in inventing new words (leave that to Shakespeare and Roald Dahl). I guess that would make you lose marks in 11+ and every mark lost is couple of places down. I suggest my students to not do something seriously unusual because your writing may not stand out but it could be you who would be standing out of the GS