English and Creative Writing Sessions

Date / time: Please get in touch with dates and times best for you.

Location: In school / college / as part of a Taster Day at Francis Close Hall.

Suitable for Year 11/12/13 (or equivalent)

Open to Year 11, 12 and 13 (unless stated otherwise) students and available from September 2024 to July 2025 – the taster sessions below can be delivered in school / college, online, or as part of a Taster Day on campus to provide insight into studying English and/or Creative Writing at University.

What makes ‘good’ writing?”

Supporting GCSE cohorts for their English Language exams, this session asks “What makes ‘good’ writing?”. Students are introduced to some of the key elements of prose – plot, character, and setting –through a series of practical exercises that can help enhance their construction and writing of short narratives.

Be Me. Write Free. Writing for Wellbeing to support young people

This day of workshop sessions allows young people a chance to detach writing from the curriculum and use it as a reflective tool. Everyone is a writer. In a world that seems frequently chaotic, especially from the perspective of young people, alongside the pressures they face, this day provides a quiet, safe space where young people will be guided through different writing activities to explore thoughts and feelings about various aspects of their lives.

There is no pressure on the sharing of the writing – this is at the discretion of the individual – although there will be reflective conversations after each session. Workshop days are suitable for those 11-18, but groups are limited to 15. Sessions will be tailored around the dynamics and needs of the group.

Studying Creative Writing at University

This taster workshop for A Level students demonstrates what studying creative writing at university is like. After discussing what creative writing actually means and the vast array of opportunities it can provide, students are introduced to the core foundations of prose fiction, including conflict-driven plots, character goals and motivations, and the different types of point-of-view.

Through discussion-based and writing exercises, students apply these elements to their own story openings.

Identity and division: analysing literature, past and present

Suitable for A Level students, this workshop explores how an author’s background and beliefs intersect with the wider social context to influence a reader’s interpretation of a text. Students work in small groups to unpick the literary and linguistic devices used to represent identities and overarching societal debates – gender and sexuality, race and colonialism, class inequality and division – in short extracts from both contemporary and historical literature.

Should anyone tell us what we can and can’t write?

What is censorship and why does it happen? What do we mean by ‘taboo’? Why do we write and how does it affect people? Is there anything that should be ‘off-limits’?

Suitable for Year 12 and 13 (or equivalent), this debate and discussion session explores censorship from the Ancient Greeks to ‘cancel culture’, and asks whether there is any topic that writers, ethically, shouldn’t tackle, and who should have the power to decide this.