Myself, Toby de Angeli and Zia Ahmed were invited to Harrogate High School in Yorkshire to deliver a spoken word and storytelling workshop day and performance as part of National Storytelling Week! We have a brilliant time and got some wonderful feedback. Some of the students work created in the session can be found here. The workshop was also covered by the local press, the article can be found here and some of the feedback from the day is below!
‘I really enjoyed this workshop because we got to do fun activities. I learned new ways of how to get ideas. I felt nervous about speaking in front of everyone, but I overcame it. I also learned that when I am editing a piece of writing, I should say each sentence like a separate line.’ – Workshop Participant
‘Thank you for a really good workshop. This has really improved my English. I have used a lot more adjectives in the work I have done today and I have realised there are thousands of words about one thing. I have enjoyed where we just had to write without speaking. I was nervous to speak in front of everyone but I think it was good for me.’ – Workshop Participant
‘The workshop today has been really enjoyable, it has allowed me to explore new ways of writing and verbalising work. It has shown me new skills and vocabulary that I had never thought to use before. Nice people to work with who were really supportive.’ – Workshop Participant
‘I really enjoyed this workshop. It has helped me learn a lot more about storytelling and how easy it can be to come up with new ideas. They taught me that you can write a million different things about one object and that you shouldn´t go with the obvious. At first I didn´t like the idea of speaking in front of the group but after I did it I felt a lot more confident about doing activities like this again.’ – Workshop Participant
‘I had such a good time on Friday. I loved the way the workshop was structured so that students were able to complete a task at the end that none of them particularly thought they were going to be capable of at the beginning of the day. The activities were just the right length and worked together really well. I thought you guys had a great rapport with the kids too and they really listened to you without any effort on your part which isn’t always easy!!!! If you’d asked the kids at the start of the day how they felt about the prospect of a writing workshop and compared that to the enthusiasm they all had by the end you’d see a huge difference. I think teaching them personal writing is going to be much easier for us after the workshop. They all produced things they were proud of too and it was so lovely to see them enthused and excited by their writing. The performance was also great. You all chose great poems. It was great to show the kids that poetry like this exists as they all naturally think poetry is rubbish. I liked the fact that you all chose poems related to experiences as children or teenagers, which engages teenagers. The fact it was so quiet the whole time shows our kids were really taking it all in. I would completely recommend you to anyone looking for writing workshops, and if I can ever get the budget holders to release me any more money we would have you back in a heartbeat!’ – Sarah Watson, English Teacher at Harrogate High School
nichol keene 