never knowingly without a pen
In 2017 - 2018 I had a lovely time working in a secondary school in Bath one day work, employed as a Writer in Residence. I used this blog as a notebook to document the workshops, so I thought I'd link to a few of the posts I wrote, for anyone who might find them… Continue reading DIY Poetry Writing Workshops
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
As you know, I was Writer in Residence at St Gregory's School, Bath, in the academic year 2017-2018, and I've been using this blog as a place to record my experience, especially workshops I've run. This is a post about using two poems by Katherine Stansfield, 'How to make a good crisp sandwich' and 'Socks… Continue reading Poetry workshop ideas: #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
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 #writerinschool
This was a writing workshop with 90 children, split into three mixed-age groups, half Year 6 (10 and 11 year olds) and half Year 1 (5 and 6 year olds). The theme of the workshop was 'listening' and the children started by writing continuously for about three minutes, listing all the sounds they could hear… Continue reading Writer in School: I sat in the quiet classroom and I heard……
June 2011 This writing exercise worked well with mixed aged children (5 and 6 year olds with 9 and 10 year olds). Older children supported the younger ones ('Shall I start that off for you?' 'Shall I write that for you?'), younger children often had a wider variety of ideas! We started by talking about… Continue reading Writer in school: My School Jumper – a writing exercise using all five senses
Josephine Corcoran 