I thought I would post about a vist I made recently to a school, with my writer's hat on. Now if I actually had such a hat it might have looked like the one below. As it was, I had to make do with a metaphorical one.
I was visiting speaker at Reading Oratory Prep School in Berkshire on the 16th of January and I have to say I had a lovely day working with pupils and students, talking to staff and running workshops on writing and more. In all, I saw groups of Year 4, Year 6, Year 7 and Year 8 students.
I shared with them some of my own writing and got them to write their own wonderful masterpieces. I was particularly impressed with some of the Year 6's efforts who, in the style of my 'Three Gusts of Wind' winning entry from the Halloweenfest competition at South Hill Park, created spooky talking tales which they delivered with gusto.
They really are a lucky bunch of young people to have so many committed teachers and a Head of English who writes himself and who encourages their creativity. I was kindly given a copy of their own publication which they self published. It's entitled My Utopia and it includes some of the students' works of creative writing.
There are so many interesting pieces in the book but one of my favourite poems is written by a student in Year 8. In rhyming couplets, the poem describes the sense of triumph the speaker feels when scoring a try in rugby. Just goes to show that a poem can be written about absolutely anything. Talk about encouraging boys to write.
