In November 2018, I was lucky enough to attend two days of training with the National Literacy Trust to update and improve my skills as a writing workshop facilitator in schools. The course was based in Victoria Park Primary School, an absolutely lovely school in Bristol, and facilitated by Fay and Tim from the National … Continue reading School for Writers with the National Literacy Trust
My weekly visits to St Gregory's Catholic College, Bath, have come to an end now that the school year has finished. I'm grateful to Headteacher, Ann Cusack, for inviting me to be Writer in Residence for a year, and to all students and staff who welcomed me to the school community and ensured that I … Continue reading Thoughts on how to set up a residency #writerinschool
I wanted to write a few posts before my residency at St Gregory's Catholic College ends, especially mentioning poems that prompted a lot of animated discussion and produced some exciting creative writing from school students. 'Other Clouds' by Rebecca Perry from her collection Beauty/Beauty (Bloodaxe, 2015) and 'what my mother (a poet) might say' by Mary … Continue reading Poems that find a way to say what isn’t said #writerinschool
I'm back at St Gregory's Catholic College, Bath, for my final term as Writer in Residence and I thought I'd mention two poems which students have particularly enjoyed. Both are about creatures - one about a wasp, and one about seagulls. The students loved reading the poems and they've written brilliant poems in response. … Continue reading Using Rebecca Perry’s ‘Wasp’ and Brian McCabe’s ‘Seagull’ in a poetry workshop — #writerinschool
I can hardly believe that after Easter, I'll be starting my final term as Writer in Residence at St Gregory's Catholic College, Bath. The time has whizzed by. This term, as well as reading and writing poetry, students have written crime fiction, particularly looking at very short stories (flash fiction). We received the good news … Continue reading The end of another term of writing at St Gregory’s
This week I took Alice Oswald's book Weeds and Wild Flowers in to St Gregory's Catholic College, Bath, where I'm working as Writer in Residence. I was prompted to do this by Sarah Westcott's gorgeous poem about snowdrops Fair Maids of February which was a winner in this year's Cafe Writers Competition judged by Liz … Continue reading Writing poems about flowers #writerinschool
I brought in some crime flash fiction to St Gregory's School where I work one day a week as writer in residence and the students loved reading, talking about, and writing their own very short crime stories. These were Year 8 and Year 9 students, aged 12 - 14, with a variety of different literacy … Continue reading Very short crime stories: #writerinschool
As I mentioned before, I liked the collage feel of both Anthony Wilson's notebook posts and Julie Mellor's post about Cubomania, in which Julie cut up blocks of text and placed them together in a random way to create new poems. With this in mind, I started a new term at St Gregory's Catholic College, Bath, … Continue reading Writing poetry with secondary school students: using cut ups
I'm really enjoying being Writer in Residence at St Gregory's Catholic College, Bath. As well as writing with students during lesson time, I also run a Creative Writing Club at Break and Lunchtime, one day a week. When we're writing poetry, I usually take in lots of photocopies of poems but today I took in … Continue reading Reading and writing Christmas-themed poems with Year 7s: #writerinschool
I'm coming to the end of my first term as Writer in Residence at St Gregory's Catholic College, Bath. As you know, I've been using this blog as a place to document my work there. Previous posts include Beginning to Write Poetry With Secondary School Students, Reading and Writing Poems about Where I'm From, National Poetry … Continue reading Thinking about sound and other senses. #writerinschool
