Context

Hardenhuish School is a Secondary School in Chippenham, Wiltshire

Aims & principles

• To teach children about different poetic forms
• To build children’s confidence in their own creative writing skills
• To teach students the importance of redrafting

In Practice

Poet Rose Flint worked with six different groups of Year 8 students. Each group had two sessions with Rose. The aim was for each student to write his or her own poem, which would then be included in a school anthology. The students spent the first session drafting their poem, and the second session completing it, working on their poems in the intervening days. Each group explored a shared theme and focused on a specific poetic form. The chosen theme was centred around what kind of future the children might want, involving social, political and environmental considerations.

The first session began with a warm-up activity where pupils were asked a specific question, such as ‘If a poem was a bird/insect/animal/weather condition, what would it be, and why?’ or given objects to act as a stimulus for their writing.

The students then moved on to their themed poems, firstly taking part in group discussions, and then working individually with Rose and the teacher. The results were read back to the group, with Rose giving each pupil advice about re-drafting their poems, hints about style and technique, and suggestions for using imagery and detail.

The process was then repeated in the second session, again with opportunities for one-to-one feedback and open readings. By the end of the second session, every pupil had a completed poem.

Outcome

Clearly, the pupils enjoyed the fact that their work was being taken seriously by a professional writer. Boys in particular responded very well. They enjoyed the ‘puzzle’ of keeping thought allied to form and, certainly, the motivation and interest in writing poems amongst the less able/disaffected boys was marked.

Rose’s work with the lowest set was also remarkably successful. This group all wrote accomplished acrostic poems, excelling the expectations of their teacher.

By the end of the residency, many poems of an exceptionally high standard had been produced, with students feeling proud of their achievements: “it’s fun learning how to put a poem together”; “I keep getting my writing wrong because I keep running away with ideas!”

Legacy

• Rose provided the teachers with a ‘toolkit’ of poetry writing exercises
• A considerable number of students have said they will now read more poetry creative writing by pupils may be read out in assemblies
• There is a possibility of a creative writing group being established outside of school, with internet connections being made with other young writers and schools that have writers-in-residence
• Creative writing sessions for teachers may be introduced, as well as regular visits from writers to work with pupils

This residency has proved that there is much for writers, teachers and pupils to gain from working creatively together.

“That poetry can be used as a vehicle for so much feeling and thought as well as story-telling or description, will I hope stay with them. That poetry can be a safe and strong place in which to put ‘unsafe’ expressions of the self may well be of great use, beyond the classroom,”— Class Teacher

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