Our current programmes
Our work with young people aims to close the opportunity gap that many face, helping them improve their writing skills and confidence
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Writing Workshops
Our one-hour, once a week workshops, are created in consultation with schools to support creativity and the teaching of writing skills. Over eight to ten weeks, pupils work with SPA volunteers to complete writing projects around a core idea or theme. We have eight to ten week writing workshops for S1 and S2 pupils that culminate in a chapbook or smaller published piece. Other workshops include:
- Our more intensive Young Writers/Young Voices project for S2 – S4 pupils may be the right path for your class. During the workshop pupils may explore a topic, a question or a subject allowing them to research, express their own opinions, and build their writing skills. The end of the workshop culminates in a perfect bound book, a testament to their hard work which also helps bolster the pupils’ self-esteem and confidence.
- Designed to help P7 pupils make the adjustment from primary to high school, our Transition Writing Workshops take place during the last term of a pupil’s P7 year and the first term of their S1 year in high school. These fun workshops provide continuity, familiar faces, and writing support for pupils who are making a big change in their lives. We use creativity to help them process that change and start their high school experience with confidence.
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Storytelling and Bookmaking Workshops
These short (approx. 2.5 – 3 hour), interactive, high-energy workshops are designed for classes from P3 to P6. Aimed at getting younger students to use their imaginations, these sessions spark creativity and are full of fun. SPA volunteers work with pupils to craft and illustrate an original story, creating original characters and plots. Once the story reaches its climax, each pupil writes their own unique ending and takes home a bound copy of the resulting book.
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Portfolio Editing
At the request of our school partners, we support S4 and S5 pupils as they prepare their written pieces for the English portion of the National Assessments. SPA volunteers lower the adult-pupil ratio in a class, listening to pupils’ ideas for their creative and discursive pieces of writing, reading through written pieces and helping edit the work prior to submission. Such individual attention has been proven to maximise success.
