The First Performance Poetry Day

Words cannot describe how elated I feel after the events of today. 

Six months ago, I was watching Jools Holland with my sister when George the Poet graced the screen and my sister and I stopped everything to watch this (note: my sister rarely stops talking, so I knew this was a special moment). I thought he would be an ideal role model for our students: young, intelligent and passionate, with incredible skill in writing and performing poetry.

Today, Oxford Spires hosted the inaugural Performance Poetry Day. We already have some confident and competent performers in school, from alumna Azfa Ali to current First Story students. But today, we targeted the kids who don't usually come into contact with our creative writing activities, offering them an opportunity to work with inspiring and talented young spoken word poets. 

We set up two parallel workshops: one for a select group of twelve boys to work with George and another for twelve girls to work with Azfa. In Azfa's group, she got the students to think about rhythm using playground clapping games, whilst the boys who worked with George impressed us by turning up full of ideas about which they might want to talk and write.

George's enthusiasm for change and hope was infectious. The students instantly respected him and wanted to share with and impress him. He talked about the state of contemporary society and the problems he saw with the current political system and the struggles he anticipated his teenage audience are likely to soon face. The students engaged immediately, talking about misogyny, poverty and racism. In a short space of time, they worked together to create poems about these issues and more, drawing on their own experiences. 

At the end of the day, we crammed as many students as possible into our new Theatre to show off the hard work of the selected workshop students. Those who wanted to perform had the opportunity to stand up in front of their peers and demonstrate their new-found talents. Azfa and George also performed some of their poems, and the students showed their appreciation through applause, sometimes interrupting the performances with clapping and cheering.

I am so proud of the students who were involved with the events today. Kate and I are buzzing, because we have managed to reach a large number of students who previously had little knowledge of the great creative writing activities that take place in our school. Across OSA, everyone is talking about poetry. At last! Our plan now is to create a performance poetry club to take these skills and talents even further!

With thanks to all my colleagues for their help in running Performance Poetry Day; and many, many thanks to the people at the John Betjeman Poetry Competition for Young People for their support and sponsorship for this event.

First Trip*

*I should clarify: this is about the first trip since I officially started this blog. (Also, I have to stick with the 'Firsts' of the blog titles, which is proving to be a challenge). I have been on many First Story trips in the past, from residentials in Somerset and Shropshire to the First Story Festival at Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford.

First Story students from Larkmead, Cheney and Oxford Spires Academy gathered together at the Pitt Rivers museum to work with Kate Clanchy, Tim Pears, and Julie Bolitho-Lee. We were separated into three groups, giving the students a chance to work with different young people and different writers. It was a really mixed group, with some fresh little year 7s, some gifted and talented children, and some inclusion students.

Tour guides from the Pitt Rivers showed us around, highlighting specific items in the museum. If you have ever been to the Pitt Rivers, you will know that it is full of acquisitions! There is hardly room to turn around, but this is it's charm. As our tour guide informed us, most museums work on the idea that they have the best of something - the best portraits, the oldest artefacts, the most unique exhibits. But the Pitt Rivers has the most of everything - twenty different boomerangs from loads of different countries, thousands of materials from hundreds of eras. They reckon they have items from all but five nations!

Naturally, we could not see everything there - I have been often and I still see something new each time I visit - so we focused on a few select areas. We looked at items that would have been given as an offering in the hope of medical cures or blessings from the Gods. We debated what might be in some mystical bottles, thought to contain witches. We saw the totem pole that stands tall in the centre of the museum. But best of all, we got to look at some local artefacts: magical potatoes from Cowley, believed to ward off rheumatism, and mandrake root from Headington, which would have been used in love potions.

Then it was time to write. As a starter, Kate got us to write word photos, which are short poems designed to capture a specific moment or item. We thought about things we had seen in the museum, and had to select just three adjectives and keep our poems to about ten words. This was a lovely little task to get us thinking about how language can best be utilised, and it encouraged us to keep things short.

For the main element of the workshop, we talked about our 'demons'. Kate asked us to think about creating a container in which we could trap all our dark memories and bad habits and pet peeves. Students were encouraged to write about whatever came to mind, from their hatred off-brand ketchup to their fears of not fitting in.

When we all gathered together again, every group had something to show off about. Students in the other groups wrote list poetry or flash fiction, starting with the phrase: "The night I was locked in the museum..." It was interesting that a lot of the students used the totem pole in their writing, highlighting what a significant feature of the Pitt Rivers museum it is.

My students came away from the trip feeling freshly inspired and with new techniques for creative writing. I love having the chance to work with students and authors from other schools, sharing in their experience and creative processes. I appreciate that these events are complicated to organise, but First Story should be incredibly proud of all the opportunities they are providing for young people across the country.

First Feedback

Feedback is a big challenge for me – both in terms of giving and receiving. So far, I am terribly in awe of all the work our First Story students produce, meaning that I am pretty much incapable of seeing improvements. When it comes to creative writing (as opposed to academic writing), I am not particularly familiar with the structure and how to propose adjustments. Plus, creative writing is very personal: I would hate to step on Kate’s toes and damage the hard work she does to support the students, so this may be something for which I will need some help and training.

I am also pretty atrocious at taking constructive criticism about my own work (as my long-suffering mother well knows...). But I love being a part of First Story and really want to see some development in my own writing! This year, I have been consistently terrible at submitting work to Kate, mostly because I have been busy but partly because I have been worried about what she will say about it!

Today, we started our First Story session by looking at a piece of anonymous writing (not from any of our students, it should be said!) and critiquing it. We talked about the imagery, the themes and the story (or lack thereof), and discussed what we could do to make it better, which essentially came down to all the students agreeing they would throw it in the bin and write something completely different.

It was a real confidence boost for all the students to acknowledge that they could write something better than this published piece.

So I finally got my act together and emailed her a poem and a short story. The poem was from the session when we had looked at Simon Armitage's poem, and the short story was from the day we had look at Katherine Mansfield's writing (click here if you dare). For both pieces, I recognise that some work needed to be done, so I hope I will not be distressed by anything Kate had to say. I think this recognition came from seeing Kate working with the students and getting a better idea of how their work could be developed, and from knowing that I had not made the same mistakes as we had seen in the starter sample.

The Student Teacher's First Lesson

Today, our wonderful writer-in-residence was whisked away to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen!

Initially, we were hoping Miss Woolley would lead the lesson, giving our young writers an opportunity to catch up and edit existing work, making developments and alternations and working towards the First Story anthology. But then Miss Woolley was called away on urgent business where she would meet another royal, Prince Charles, so Mr Moyser, our lovely English intern, offered to take the session.

As a student teacher, Mr Moyser presented me with a brilliantly structured and fluent lesson plan before commencing teaching. It noted the lesson aims, resources to be referenced, and differentiation opportunities. It was very detailed, but what impressed me most was his actual teaching - engaging, entertaining and educational.

Mr Moyser presented us with an extract from Zadie Smith's NW, in which she describes a route from A to B in a rather unconventional manner. The first part of the extract looks a little like a Google Maps route, outlining distance and turnings. The second part described the same journey using short snippets of detail, such as the smells, sights and sounds. It was a very unconventional starting point, focusing on sensual settings rather than character or story.

Then, the group were asked to think about a journey they know well, like the route to school. Mr Moyser used the technique of automatic writing, in which the young writers are encouraged to write about whatever comes into their head as the teacher offers prompts, such as "What can you smell?", "If you stuck your hand out right now, what could you touch?". Some students wrote lists, whilst others wrote sentences. After a few minutes of this, Mr Moyser asked us to pause, reflect, and edit, bringing together similar sounds and rhythms, developing our notes into a poem or short piece of prose.

This workshop produced a variety of different styles, which was fascinating to witness. Some students took the task literally, writing something similar to Smith's original but drawing on their own experiences. Others built up their routes, subtly adding in story or character through carefully manufactured hints and implications.

I really enjoyed this workshop - and I think this is partly due to Mr Moyser's beautifully executed and suitably flexible lesson plan. Seeing the direction the lesson was intended to go gave me a different perspective on a writing workshop, and helped me think differently about teaching and learning.

First Writer's Block

At the end of each session, Kate collects up the work of most students for her special typing up service, in which she transforms scribbles and pencil scratchings into poetic masterpieces. Then, when we begin each new session, Kate will present us with the work from last week, so we can look it over and celebrate what has been achieved. It is a lovely way to link all the sessions together, and to get the students to recognise how well they are doing. It also means that the young writers begin each class feeling optimistic and ready to write!

During the week, Kate sent us all a short story and a poem to read, based around the story of Beauty and the Beast. As a group, we then talked about folk stories we knew as a child and dreams and fears these stories evoked. Most of us were preoccupied with Disney-style stories, though it appears one of our female sixth formers always dreamed of being Han Solo.

Thinking about childhood, Kate encouraged us to write, starting with the line, "When I was a child...", inspired by The Beast by Lorraine Mariner. There were giggles from all around the table as people reminisced about their youthful fantasies about handsome princes and comic book superheroes and life as a cat.

I, meanwhile, drew a complete blank. I had had an incredibly long day, running around in my other role as Primary Liaison. So when it came to formulating words in sentences, I failed.

But when I heard the students read back their poems and stories, I felt incredibly inspired. We laughed about shared dreams and common experiences and some superbly random childhood imaginings, and suddenly I started thinking about the task a lot more creatively.

Today, I ran out of time to write anything, but I have this weekend all to myself so will definitely find time to go back to this task.

First Breakthrough

Over this first term, many of the students from First Story have come and approached me to talk about what they are reading or writing. It is incredible how fast they become confident in sharing with you, wanting to know what you think.

Today, I felt like Kate really broke through with some of the new students in our group. We drew from a poem by Simon Armitage called 'It Ain't What You Do, It's What It Does To You'. Kate encouraged us to think about our dreams - where we wanted to go, what we wish we could see and taste - and to contrast them to things we have seen and done - things unique to our families, our homes, our city.

I found myself thinking about all the great places I have visited, including Southeast Asia, Scandinavia, the United States. There is so much more I want to do with my life, but I found myself contrasting these amazing experiences with the more personal things I want to see and do, like seeing my friends get married, seeing my brother continue to mature and having a family of my own.

There is still some work to be done on this, but maybe I will put it online soon.

Meanwhile, the students produced some incredible pieces. Whereas mine had been an optimistic dream of my future, others had contrasted the boredom and discolour of Britain with their fantasies of other countries and cities. Some had compared their dreams of world travel with home comforts, such as food, family and friends. There was one student in particular who we really felt achieved her first piece of great writing today, in which she used incredibly beautiful imagery to describe her love of her family.

When all the students had left, Kate and I shared the excitement of her breakthrough. This is what First Story is all about!

Click here to see my work from this session. 

First Try at Developing Writing

This last week has been one of the most stressful of my professional life, with not enough hours in the day to do everything. As usual, First Story came to my rescue, offering me a moment of respite following a long hard day in the Library.

Last week, a number of students were absent from school to celebrate Eid, so this week the group felt pretty large. (I know - it seems just moments ago we were worried that we would not have enough students attending!)

Kate has been encouraging us all to start to develop a short story, drawing inspiration from Katherine Mansfield's 'The Wind Blows'. With a focus on setting and atmosphere, she gave us a place (fairground, bedroom, bus) and a feeling (hope, grief, boredom) and we created vivid characters within just a few hundred words.

We have a nice mix in our after-school First Story group: some sixth formers who have been attending for years, now published in several First Story anthologies; some new sixth formers, enticed by the achievements of their classmates; and key stage four students who Kate has attracted in the past through special groups, such as a group she led with girls from other countries.

Kate and Miss Woolley (our Head of English Specialism) have introduced an AS in Creative Writing. The reason we wanted to incorporate the AS into her sessions was because we thought it would be incredibly easy for students who had already attended the First Story sessions for some time to get the qualification. They had already shown raw talent, the ability to make revisions and develop their writing, and a reasonably sized, good-quality portfolio of work.

This week's development task was targeted at them, in order to produce work for their portfolios; but it also proved an interesting challenge for some of the younger students. With creative writing, work produced can be very personal, so sometimes it is hard for students to accept feedback and make changes. (I think a whole blog post might have to be dedicated to my own issues with constructive critisicm...)

Over the last few weeks, I have been hugely impressed by all the students, but our group definitely feels a little too big, especially following the great session we had last week with fewer present. Sometimes, we can't fit all the students around the big central table in the library, and we struggle to give each student the attention they deserve. Kate and I were simply not expecting such a brilliant uptake!

Click here to see my work inspired by Katherine Mansfield.

First Guest

With Kate away this week, we invited guest writer Alan Buckley to lead our First Story class today. He is a very inspiring poet, and I have met him and experienced his workshops several times in the past, including the First Story Residential at Nettlecombe in Somerset last summer.

The activity Alan led this week was one I have done before with him, where he gives the class a list of first lines to well known poems and asks students to use this as a starting point for their own creations. Some of the first lines include Sylvia Plath’s ‘The Applicant’, ‘I Will Put Chaos into Fourteen Lines’ by Edna St Vincent Millay and ‘The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’ by T.S. Eliot. All we get is the line, with no idea of who wrote the original or what the poem is about.

Last time I did this particular workshop, I used Plath’s first line as my start. I was drawn to it, vaguely aware that I knew where it had come from, unable to focus properly on any of the other options (N.B. I adore Sylvia Plath).

This time, I tried a different first line: “I was nearly killed here, one night in February.” (From ‘Solitude (I)’ by Tomas Tranströmer.) Having recently read War Horse, I found myself thinking about war. First, I imagined an elderly man returning to France, to the place where he fought during the First World War; but soon the poem took control and I was led to writing about a woman reminiscing about her experiences of World War Two, hiding underground whilst bombs fell over her home town. I was actually quite proud of myself.

But on then hearing the students’ work, I instantly became even more proud – of them. One student had used the same first line as me and wrote about a car crash, so we were shocked to learn the original subject of Tranströmer’s poem. We had poems about husbands blowing up their cheating wives, about dystopian worlds of chaos, and about love towards absent parents.

Alan and I split the group in two, so that all present could share their work. Some needed coaxing, but most were surprisingly willing to read aloud – I think once they see friends reading, none of them wanted to be the odd one out. Together, we had a laugh and a cry, and I feel like I know each one a little better.

First Words

Today we talked dialogue.

I am a reluctant writer at best, let alone when writing dialogue. Within prose, I tend to find any dialogue dry and stunted, so avoid it at all costs. So play-writing is a nightmare.

As we had some new additions today (including some boys, horrah for gender equality!), Kate started us off by introducing ourselves again. Then she got us to look at some of Craig Taylor’s One Million Tiny Plays About Britain. These are observational stories, little snippets of the everyday, in which it feels like you are eavesdropping as you read. Not much happens, but you are thrown in the middle of a story, given a sample of a life, and left to draw your own conclusions.

Kate is looking for us to produce One Million Plays About East Oxford. Now of course, as soon as this was proposed, everyone said they didn’t know what to write about, there is nothing special about East Oxford, it’s boring around here... But with some prompting, people started to realise that they have funny relatives, oddball friends, unique places. We have different languages and accents, numerous backgrounds and cultures, and a million little stories to tell.

Having only lived in East Oxford for a year, I could only write about what I know, and what I know is Cowley Road. The idea that sprang to mind was to do with the times I take friends out along the Cowley Road for dinner – there are so many restaurants from which to choose! And there is one friend in particular (whom I adore) who always insists on paying and we always have the same conversation.

A first draft is never perfect, and I have some work to do in order to tighten up this piece and build up the comic tension. I also want to make it slightly more universal, as I felt like Craig Taylor’s characters were the sort where everyone knows someone like that.

The group felt a lot more focused today. We had a few who needed help, but most are loving the creative writing side of it and seem a little worried about the academic element of the AS they can opt to sit. My advice has been to focus on the bit writing for pleasure, and they can make their decision about the AS later in the year. First Story is so much fun, and such a brilliant experience – I find that understanding the writing process completely alters my love of reading, because I have a better knowledge of how the writer developed their novel, play or collection of poems. For the students, having creative writing skills will also help with their academic writing, giving them a new approach to structure and form. And it builds their confidence – last year, I saw delicate flowers transform into budding butterflies of literature.

The First First Story

FINALLY! We have begun!

We had an interesting mix at the upper school session today – from regulars who seem to have been there forever, to fresh faced mid-term admissions, to seemingly reluctant sixth formers. We are offering a Creative Writing AS this year, so some students have been added to the group to fill out their timetables. I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I have informed them I expect full participation and attendance.

Kate started off with an activity I have seen done in the past. She gets everyone to tell the group their name and explain a little about where it came from or what it means. Some of the names have beautiful meanings, like one girl whose name meant ‘shooting star’. Some were quite funny – we have two girls called Paige, who discussed the symbolism of being a young slave. (Last year, one Paige wrote a poem about how much she despises her name, which is one of my favourites produced in that anthology.)

My name comes from ‘Song For Whoever’ by the Beautiful South. Mum and Dad had agreed to call me Jennifer, but when I was born, Mum didn't think I looked like a Jennifer. So Dad suggested they play ‘Song For Whoever’ and register me with the next name that was mentioned, convinced he had the Beautiful South tape in the right place and that the next name would be Jennifer. But it was Kathy. I just count myself lucky it wasn’t Deborah or Sue...

One or two of the girls were unsure where their names came from, so we talked about their meanings. But it is a lovely way to memorise the students’ names and get to know them a little bit.

I got a little worried when Kate started to pass around apples, and not just because the girl sat next to me was allergic. Kate encouraged us to look, touch and taste, and then asked us to think about some metaphors to describe the apple. Here’s what she asked us and what I answered:

If this apple were a month, what month would it be?	October
If this apple were weather, what weather would it be?	Rainfall
Where might this apple be found?	In a desolate back garden
What would it be wearing, or what would it look like?	An abandoned child in raggedy clothing
If this apple could speak, what would it say?	Pick me up!

She then asked us to think of similar metaphors to describe ourselves, which in my experience tends to lead to self-indulgence - I romanticise my identity, drawing on popular culture (something I am currently reading about in Hadley Freeman’s recent book, Be Awesome).

From these two pathways, we had to choose which to turn into a piece of writing.

I really struggled.

At first, I felt more drawn to writing about myself, but I tend to find that I produce better work if I go for the less obvious option. My instinct told me that I could combine the two pieces, perhaps making the apple a metaphor for myself...? But here, I knew I was overcomplicating things.

The students were a little giggly and reluctant at first. Kate said they could write anything, even just one sentence, so the more stubborn of our group took that literally. Others wrote more, but some produced immature pieces – immature in terms of clichéd form and style, not subject matter. In amongst pretty images were some beautiful words and phrases – I just know Kate will make something brilliant of them in no time!

This first session had a early nervousness to it that developed into laughter and will only get better. As we finished up, the girls chatted to me about what they had written, and I was honoured that they wanted me to read their work. It is lovely to be getting my hands dirty with them, especially as you realise how terrifying it can be to read something out to everyone, to share a little piece of yourself with the group. But as you share, they share, and together we will grow. It makes for a lovely atmosphere, a perfect end to a Tuesday. I know these girls have the raw talent to produce incredible writing, and I cannot wait to see it happen.

Pre-First Story

The first session has felt like a long time coming, and it all kicks off tomorrow.

Back in April, I think it was, Emma and Kate asked if I would take over as First Story Teacher (even though I am a Librarian). I have loved having First Story hosted in the Library, and tried to assist where possible with providing resources and encouragement, but had kept to a safe distance. Unfortunately, it seemed I had not gone unnoticed.

With no access to emails over the summer break (due to some technical complications across school), Kate and I struggled to get everything sorted before the start of term, so our first couple of days were spent manically running around trying to get the message out to students that FIRST STORY IS RESUMING SOON! I gate-crashed assemblies and tutor times, made announcements in briefing, and basically threw letters at student to attract attention.

Kate is worried we might struggle to get enough kids together, but I am more optimistic. We have two groups for First Story – a lunch time group with year eight and nine students, and an after school group with GCSE and A-Level students. The latter takes place in the Library, with the former in an English classroom. Since the Library is full of kids at lunch time, I cannot attend the lower school session, though hope that can change with some support from other staff.

One of the main challenges of hosting First Story in the Library is that the space has to be open to all students until 4pm for homework catch up. Most kids use the Library for the right reasons and in the right ways, but there are always exceptions – some play games, which is fine unless they are disrupting others. So I tend to spend a good chunk of time having to keep the non-First Story kids quiet. Last year, this was the reason I managed to keep my distance, but now, I will have to find new ways to ensure both the homework catch up and creative writing students are dealt with fairly.

Wish me luck!