Generally speaking, boys will form the most intransigent barrier to a harmonious and productive writing session in class. Being pragmatic, they fail to see the point in creating a story and writing a narrative when it goes nowhere… literally.

The key to overcoming this reluctance lies in creating a clear connection between narrative writing and the popular culture forms they relate to best. Paul Stafford literacy engages boys by focussing on the social purpose outcome of narrative writing while retaining a strong sense of free thinking creativity, artistic control and pure fun.

Paul Stafford has run professional development/teacher training sessions for e-Lit (formerly PETA) in overcoming boys’ reluctance (“Boys Write Too”) and delivered multiple modules in Success For Boys modules since SFPs inception. He was a Nestle Write Around Australia author and runs student & teacher workshops for Lateral Learning Speakers Agency.

Paul devised and continues to facilitate the award winning boys writing program the Dead Bones Society in conjunction with the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum. The program has won funding from the N.S.W Ministry for the Arts  (now Arts NSW), Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR). The Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) provided funding to extend the Dead Bones Society into an outreach program incorporating web conferencing, workshops tours and central website – “Bones on the Road”. He has spearheaded three cine-literacy programs in remote Indigenous schools funded by Indigenous Culture Support grants (ICC).