Writing was banned for a day at Littleham CE Primary School as children learnt the value of speaking and listening.

The national speaking and listening event saw pupils focus on speaking and listening rather than writing, with everyone putting down their pens for the day.

As a result the children were involved in a wide range of learning activities including playing charades, spelling bee and animations without writing.

Caitlyn Williams, aged 11, said: “We’ve discovered how much we rely on pens and also the different ways of communicating.

“We’ve been listening and speaking more carefully ever since No pens day. It gave us an opportunity to learn in a different way. It would be great if we could do more activities like this!”

Duncan Nelmes, head teacher, said: “We wanted to focus our thinking as a whole school on the importance of speaking and listening skills to be a successful learner.”