Spring Bank find their inspiration
James Nash writes:
I’m working with Year 3 at
Spring Bank Primary School, and they are looking at me as if I’m a rare and
exotic specimen. I might be the first writer they have actually met. I
introduce myself and see them begin to relax a little as I talk about my work
as a writer, showing them copies of the newspapers and magazines I have written
for and the stories and the collections of poetry I have had published over the
years. I talk about inspiration and
imagination and the importance of observation for the writer.
And then I introduce the
object shrouded in a cotton bag which they are going to write about, something
which I hope will pique their imagination and lead to them being inspired to
write a poem. The battered old trumpet
[pictured] has proved itself over the years as a great starting point for
writers of every age.
We write down our
observations in response to a series of loose and open-ended questions I ask
them, stressing that as we are unable to pass it around as we might have done
in the past, we have to call on out imaginations even more to describe what it
looks, sounds, feels, smells and tastes like; using our five senses in
fact. We think about what its story
might be too.
Throughout this first
session the young people have opportunities to stand and read their responses
to the rest of the class and it is good to see how many of them are feeling
brave enough to do this.
On my next visit class
teacher Luke Wrankmore has used the image of the trumpet and my questions to
get the children to become even more engaged in the writing. I talk about the importance of editing and
redrafting and show them my first and final drafts of my trumpet poem, and talk
about the questions I often ask myself when I am rewriting.
‘What am I trying to say?
Have I started in the right
place?
Have I used the best words
and phrases I can?’
Again we share our writing,
reading to each other, and the emerging poems are brilliant.
The final session where we make
a filmed performance of our pieces sadly has to be postponed [due to a positive
Covid test result] until next week, but I am confident that they will be
complete stars.
Let me end with some words
from Sarah Hawes, the headteacher of Spring Bank Primary School.
‘It has been wonderful to be
able to welcome James back into Spring Bank to work with our Year 3
children. The poetry work he does with
them is so invaluable and their level of engagement and enthusiasm for poetry is
very evident in the work they produce; this lasts well beyond James’ visit. As
a head it’s wonderful to see how engaged our children are with James and his
poetry and the worlds of language that this opens up for them. This is especially important given our current
situation and the pressures the children have been under – the ability to
express their feelings through poetry feels ever more important.
Thank you, James for
enabling them to explore, enjoy, engage and love poetry’.
And from Jo Ward, Literacy
Coordinator
"It's so valuable, and
even more so in these unusual times, for children to actually meet and talk to
a published, working writer and to have the opportunity to work with one.
It's always wonderful to see children make that connection, realise that their
own words are just as precious and to be able to then have the confidence to
say they are writers too!"
And from me,
‘Year 3, under the able
leadership of Luke Wrankmore, once again worked with enthusiasm and
creativity. The writing exercise was
sophisticated and subtle and they rose to the occasion, sharing their work with
each other at every step of the way, performing brilliantly as they grew in
confidence’.
29
June 2021
Year 3 at Spring Bank Primary School were in performing mode this morning, taking their chairs and poems into the school yard to give an inspiring reading. As they read class teacher Luke Wrankmore took photographs of them to be used later as a series of Tweets from the school. It was the perfect culmination of their superb writing efforts.
7 July 2021
Funded by your councillors of the Inner North West Community Committee:
Headingley & Hyde Park, Little London & Woodhouse, Weetwood
