creative writing – NATE (Scotland) blog

Upcoming SATE events

SATE are currently rearranging Kenny Pieper’s SATE seminar “There’s more to life than books…but not much more” at Larbert High School, which was one of the casualties of the Beast from the East! Those who booked the previous event on the 28th of February will be contacted as soon as possible and offered a refund or a ticket at for the new date at the end of May. Thwack out for SATE on Twitter for details if you’d like to come along.

We are also delighted to announce that Simon Wrigley will be doing a seminar for us on Teacher Writing: Research and Practice. Simon is the director of the National Writing Project, will talk about what his research into the importance of teachers who write has shown and doing some practical exercises which can inform classroom practice. The date for this is the 19th of June, and the venue will be a Glasgow school. Pencil in the date!

Finally, Lisa Hamilton has announced a programme of dates for the Glasgow branch of the National Writing Project. Feel free to contact her at lisananettehamilton@gmail.com and come along to a (free) meeting soon!

April 25th – Drygate Brewing Co. 86 Drygate, Glasgow G40UT

May 30th – Thornwood Primary School, 11 Thornwood Avenue, Glasgow, G117TW

June 18th – Thornwood Primary (with Simon Wrigley)…

Meetings will start at 5pm.

Hope to see you all soon.

National Writing Project Launch, 11th October

The National Writing Project UK launch on the 11th of October saw the inaugural meeting of the first NWP group in Scotland. Emily Gillies, NQT English at Springburn Academy, reports on the event. Inquiries about NWP Glasgow can be directed to Lisa Hamilton at gw17hamiltonlisa@glow.ea.glasgow.sch.uk . Lisa has written about NWP on here own blog, here .

On Wednesday, October 11^th I had the pleasure of attending a National Writing Project UK event at Springburn Academy. The event was a launch for not only the first National Writing Project group in Glasgow but indeed the first in Scotland, and was an exciting opportunity to learn a little bit more about what the National Writing Project does, as well as learning about some practical approaches to teaching creative writing in the classroom. The event was well-attended by a mix of both primary and secondary teachers, and offered opportunities to share good practice and to discuss and reflect upon what we had learned.

Simon Wrigley, one of the co-founders of the National Writing Project UK, opened the workshop by explaining the philosophy behind the project and stressing the importance of creative writing, for both pupils and teachers. We were then asked to think about our own experiences and memories of writing, and encouraged to share these with the other members at our group, which opened up interesting conversations about the emotions associated with writing. We reflected on how these experiences – positive or negative – have influenced our adult relationships with writing, thus highlighting the importance of allowing children to have opportunities to write creatively in an encouraging, positive environment.

We then engaged in a free writing activity, in which we wrote about one of our memories or experiences for five minutes, without stopping to plan, review or edit our writing. These five minutes flew by and afterwards, we were once again encouraged to discuss and reflect upon the activity, with many in my own group describing the experience as “freeing” and “cathartic”. I very much enjoyed this writing technique as it forced me to write without worrying too much about whether it was “good enough”, which I believe is one reason I myself am hesitant to even begin writing in the first place. Many of us found that, once we had started writing, the ideas flowed very easily and the most difficult thing about it was writing quickly enough to get everything down on the page within the allotted time! We were not forced to share our work but simply to read back on it and reflect on the experience of writing itself.

Almost the instant we started reflecting on the free writing activity, I could see how it would be a useful activity to use in class. I have a National 5 class who are very reluctant to begin writing their Personal Writing pieces for their Folio, for numerous reasons, including not knowing where to start when it comes to writing about a personal experience. However, I feel like an activity such as this, where pupils and teachers are all engaged in the writing process together, where there is no pressure on creating the “perfect” piece of work, and where pupils are not forced to share their writing unless they absolutely feel comfortable doing so, is the ideal jumping off point. I will certainly be using this with my National 5 class and have plans to use it as a starter activity in BGE classes as well.

Get Write In! competition

NATE and SATE sponsored the Get Write In! creative writing competition for looked after children. SATE National coordinator Raymond Soltysek chaired the judges, which included Scottish Makar Jackie Kay. A record of a wonderful evening can be found at HERE .

Peter Thomas, chair of NATE, reflects on the event:

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It was a pleasure to represent the National Association for the Teaching of English at an inspiring event in Edinburgh’s beautiful Our Dynamic Earth centre on 15th August. The event was the Awards evening, where the winners of the Get Write IN! competition were announced. This creative writing competition was organized by CELCIS (Centre for Excellence for Looked-after Children in Scotland) based at the University of Strathclyde with the help of Raymond Soltysek, Chair of SATE (Scottish Association for the Teaching of English).

All contributors in the junior and senior sections were children in home or foster care, and the Dynamic Earth Hall was filled with them and their very proud carers. Volunteers in superhero dress provided stimulating games and challenges at tables around the hall, and there was a fine buffet and musical accompaniment to make the occasion special.

Jackie Kay, Scotland’s national poet was the star of the presentation, and well suited for the role. She spoke movingly and wittily about her young experience in care, and her struggle to become a writer. There could be no better role model for the youngsters in the room – especially as she read a poem called Care Leaver written for the event. Raymond Soltysek provided an eloquent reinforcement of Jackie’s description of writing as a form of self-defining and discovery, and the message from these two was a ringing endorsement of creative writing for all children, as well as those present on the evening. It was good, also, to have the event supported by the Mark McDonald, Scotland’s Minister for Childcare and Early Years. I had to reflect, regretfully, that England cannot boast such a splendid competition, or such government support.

The winner of the junior section was Joseph Ness and the winner of the senior section was William Cathie, both of whom wrote movingly about the impact of significant events in their lives. Both winners’ work was read out by Jackie Kay, and all the finalists had their work published in a booklet – a sign of success and approval that was well received by entrants and their carers.

The whole evening was a highpoint in a city in the middle of its annual Festival – a testament to the quality of care in Scotland, to the power of creative writing as an extension and development of self, and to the commitment of CELCIS and the University of Strathclyde to the motivation and celebration of young people’s achievement.

Developing Characters for Story Writing and Drama… NATE 2017

Reflections on NATE conference 2017 from Leanne Welsh. This is reblogged from Leanne’s excellent blog, https://nqtreflections.wordpress.com/.

At the NATE conference last weekend I attended a number of workshops that will help me to create interesting and engaging lessons for the pupils in my class. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to meet so many inspiring people that shared their ideas and practice that I can now adapt for my own pupils.

One of the workshops that blew me away was Kat Burr’s All work and no play? Introducing new views and creative ways into plays. In this workshop we gained fascinating insight into ways that we can help pupils to develop characters in plays. However, these ideas are not limited to plays and could be a worthwhile starting point for creative writing and folio work.

One of the first tasks that Kat introduced us to was ‘What’s in my Bag?’ Pupils choose two items from their bag and the rest of the group/class have to work out what the persons ‘holes’ (flaws) might be because of the items. I would say it is important to tell the pupils to think about the person with the items as a character rather than as themselves so no feelings get hurt in the process! For example if I had a small mirror in my bag, my flaw, as a character, might be that I care too much about my appearance and what people think of me. This immediately allows the pupils to start to develop a character in their own head and what the person might be like. If you have some pupils in your school that don’t have a bag or you might not feel comfortable doing this task, you could use YouTube. There are many videos out there with YouTubers promoting ‘What’s in my bag?’ You could pause it in-between items and ask the pupils to discuss or write down what their flaws might be because of their chosen items. This is also a fantastic task for getting to know a class or letting them get to know you.

Another task ( and probably my favourite) was Killer Lines. In this task pupils would be given a number of lines in their groups and they have to work out what kind of character would say these lines. You could make these lines up or use famous quotes from characters and see if the pupils can work out who is the baddie (we all know they get the best lines.) You might want to provide images and see if the pupils can match up the line with the character and give a reason why they think they could say that. For example if you use the line ‘Long Live the King!” Some pupils might say Scar because he is desperate to become the King and get rid of his brother. However, there may be another opportunity for an interesting discussion on ambiguity. Perhaps it depends on the way that a character says a line and the tone they use. Voice is so important in order to develop an accurate character; we have to hear them speak, right down to the laugh that they use. This line might have been said by a bunch of servants that are loyal to their ruler, so the status of the character is vital. Where is the character in terms of the food chain? Are they a boss or are they a disgruntled ex employee looking for revenge? Therefore an important lesson could come out of this task – delivery is often more important than what the line actually is.

As previously stated delivery is important when it comes to creating a character. Another task that I used from the workshop with my pupils was ‘Words that Annoy You.’ I asked the pupils to write down a word on a post-it that made their blood boil when someone said it (or, at least, caused them some discomfort.) To say they loved it was an understatement. They were doing this as a group and looking at each others and saying ‘Ugh, I hate that too! Why do people do that?’ I then asked the pupils to start to think about the mannerisms people use or do that annoys them. Now, if you want a successful task you should say the things that teachers do (obviously telling them to keep it anonymous) that annoys them. Each group had loads of words and mannerisms and I then asked them to explore how they think each of these words would be said or what the mannerisms would look like. I then asked them to think about what kind of character would suit this line. What personality would the character have? How would they interact with other people? How would their voice sound as they said it? Then, and I think this is really important for character development, to think about the back story. What makes this person have this mannerism? Where did the use of a word come from? Did they start to use it when their status changed in society? Do they only use these words or mannerisms with certain people and do they change depending on who they are around? This task really was fascinating and it was interesting to hear pupils saying ‘Well they only say that to us because we are a pupil, I bet they are different around the Heedie!’

The final task, and one that I think is brilliant, is getting the pupils to eavesdrop on a conversation. This could be at break, lunch or on their way home from school. The pupils should take an anonymous comment that they find unusual or funny and bring it back to class. The pupils can then explore these comments as a group, perhaps putting them all together to create a short sketch. Pupils could also provide the lines that they think came before and the lines that they think would follow. Again, another interesting opportunity to explore voice if you get the pupils to exchange their comment with someone else.

This was a fantastic and beneficial workshop that I will most certainly use to help pupils develop their characters in creative writing. Pupils often only have an image of a character in their head but it is important to delve into the history of a character in order to explore what their strengths and flaws might be.

Leanne Welsh is an English teacher in a Falkirk Council secondary school. Any views expressed are her own.