Typed Writing on Janison: A 6-Month Preparation Plan

The Writing section of the Selective exam is 25% of the total score. Most families treat it like 5%. I understand why — writing is harder to measure, harder to practise, and much less satisfying than working through a maths problem. But the result is that capable students regularly leave 15 or 20 marks on the table in this section, and those marks are the difference between a Baulkham Hills offer and a disappointing outcome.

Since 2025, the whole thing is typed. 30 minutes. One prompt. No spellcheck. Your child types it into a text box on Janison, hits submit, and that's the section. The question is how to prepare for this properly, given that most primary schools don't teach typing, don't teach structured essay-writing, and don't have time to teach under-pressure composition.

Here is the six-month plan I give parents. It's built around a typical Year 5 student starting in October for a Selective test in March. If you're shorter on time, compress the earlier months. If you're longer, expand the practice phase.

The three skills that actually determine the mark

Before the plan, it helps to name what you're actually training. Selective Writing marks break down (roughly) into three skills, each about equally weighted:

1. Fluency — can your child produce enough high-quality text in 30 minutes? This is where typing speed is critical. You can't demonstrate complex ideas if you only get 150 words out.
2. Structure — does the piece have a clear shape? Beginning, middle, end. Introduction of characters or arguments, development, resolution. Without this, even beautiful sentences score poorly.
3. Language — sentence variety, vocabulary, correct punctuation, some rhetorical or literary technique. This is the piece most English-exposed children are already decent at.

The plan trains all three, in that order of priority.

Month 1: Typing speed foundation

Goal: get your child from wherever they are now (often 15–20 WPM) to at least 25 WPM by end of month.

• Daily typing practice: 15 minutes per day on Typing Club, Keybr, or NitroType (the first two are better for accuracy, the third is more motivating). Non-negotiable. Skipping days means compounding loss of progress.
• Proper finger positioning from day one. Bad habits (hunt-and-peck, looking at the keyboard) are hard to unlearn later. If your child is already self-taught and hunting-and-pecking, start Typing Club from scratch — painful for two weeks, worth it forever.
• No writing practice this month. Just typing mechanics. Trying to write and type-fast at the same time in Month 1 will be demoralising.

Measure at the end of the month using a free online typing test (typing.com, 10fastfingers). If your child is under 20 WPM, extend typing focus for another fortnight before moving on.

Month 2: Introduction to structure

Goal: your child understands what a well-structured narrative and a well-structured persuasive piece look like. They are not writing full pieces yet.

• Continue typing practice, 10 min/day — maintenance, aiming for 30 WPM by month end.
• Read good examples. Find 5 top-quality narrative pieces (you can search "NAPLAN Year 7 example narrative" online, or use any structured writing collection) and go through them with your child, marking the introduction, rising action, climax, resolution.
• Plan-only practice. Give your child a prompt — "Write a story about a storm" — and have them spend 10 minutes just planning (no writing). Three sentences on beginning, middle, end. Notes on the main character's feeling at each stage. Repeat with a new prompt every 2–3 days.
• Do the same for persuasive pieces. "Should primary school start later?" What's the position, what are the arguments, what's the conclusion?

The reason we do plan-only before write-full is that almost every writing mistake I see in children's exam pieces traces back to poor planning. Fix the planning first.

Month 3: Short timed writing

Goal: 15-minute timed writing sessions, producing roughly 200 words of structured response.

• Continue typing maintenance. If WPM has plateaued below 30, add 5 more minutes/day.
• 3 short writing sessions per week — 15 minutes on a computer, one prompt, full response. The child types the response (not writes by hand).
• Review together after each piece. Three questions: Did you plan before writing? Did the piece have a clear shape? What's one specific thing to improve next time?
• Rotate prompt types. Narrative, persuasive, discursive. The exam could ask for any.

At this stage, don't obsess over grammar or vocabulary. The priority is producing structured, complete pieces under time pressure.

Month 4: Full 30-minute writing practice

Goal: your child can produce a 300–400 word piece under 30 minutes, with a clear structure, no significant errors.

• 2 full 30-minute writing sessions per week. Use Janison-style interface if possible — a simple text box, no spellcheck. If that's not available, a basic Notepad or Google Docs with spellcheck turned off works fine.
• Timed conditions, seriously. Your child cannot pause to think, cannot open a dictionary, cannot ask a parent a spelling. 30 minutes, then stop. Replicate the exam as closely as possible.
• Detailed feedback on every piece. This is the month where you need structured feedback from a qualified source. Each piece: what worked, what didn't, one technique to add next time.

Common patterns I see in Month 4:

Story is exciting but has no resolution (child ran out of time). Fix: spend 3 full minutes on planning, including the ending, before starting to type.

Persuasive piece is three arguments, none developed. Fix: two arguments, each with a specific example and an explanation. Depth over breadth.

Child types fluently but uses simple sentences throughout. Fix: introduce one complex sentence construction per week — subordinate clauses, semicolons, rhetorical questions.

Month 5: Language and technique

Goal: your child starts deploying deliberate language techniques to lift the piece from competent to impressive.

• Continue 2 writing sessions per week, plus 1 pure-technique exercise.
• Introduce one technique per week. Week 1: sensory imagery (smell, touch, sound — not just sight). Week 2: varied sentence openers. Week 3: dialogue with punctuation. Week 4: rhetorical questions and direct address for persuasive.
• Your child practices the specific technique in short 10-minute exercises during the week, then tries to use it naturally in the full writing session.

By the end of Month 5, your child should be producing pieces that have recognisable techniques — sensory detail in narrative, clear argument structure in persuasive, deliberate word choice throughout.

Month 6: Polish and stamina

Goal: your child is confident and has a routine. They know how they'll approach any prompt on exam day.

• Full-length mock writing sessions under exam conditions — as part of full 155-minute mock exams, so they practise writing as the final section after they're already tired from Reading, Maths, and Thinking Skills.
• Refine personal routine. Exactly how much time does your child spend planning? Exactly what shape is their introduction? Every child should have a personal 30-minute template they fall back on when nerves hit.
• Review 5 past pieces and identify your child's specific patterns — their habitual strengths and their common errors. In the final weeks, they're drilling the weaknesses, not learning new things.

Common mistakes parents make

• Writing on paper throughout prep. Feels good, familiar, easier to mark. Useless as preparation for a typed exam. Move to computer from Month 2 onwards.
• Obsessing over vocabulary. A child who uses "splendid" and "exquisite" but has no structure scores lower than one who writes clear, direct prose with solid structure. Structure > vocabulary. Always.
• Accepting "short but good" pieces. A beautifully crafted 180-word piece will score lower than a competent 380-word piece with the same level of insight. Length matters because depth requires length.
• Not training typing speed early enough. Parents often leave typing until "later." Later becomes never. Your child cannot produce a 400-word exam response in 30 minutes at 20 WPM. The maths don't work.
• Not practising the prompt types they find hardest. Most children prefer narrative. So they practise narrative. On exam day, the prompt could easily be persuasive or discursive. Rotate deliberately.

One more thing about the exam day prompt

You don't know what prompt your child will get. It could be anything. A narrative prompt about an unexpected event. A persuasive question about school, community, or a controversial topic. A discursive prompt asking them to explore both sides of an issue. Your child needs to be ready for any of them.

The single most powerful thing you can teach them is this: no matter what the prompt is, the first 3 minutes are for planning, not writing. Kids who've trained this habit don't freeze when they get an unfamiliar prompt. Kids who haven't, do.