Over 200 S5 and S6 pupils from 20 Edinburgh schools attended this year’s Creative Writing Conference on 5 September 2014. The conference was held in partnership with
- University of Edinburgh,
- Scottish Book Trust
- Scottish Poetry Library.
The event was held at Edinburgh University School of Education, where the students heard a keynote address by Anne Donovan, award winning author of ‘Buddha Da’. After this they took part in two workshops, designed to inspire them to write creatively as part of their Higher and Advanced Higher English programme.
The workshops were led by English teachers and professional writers from a range of genres, including fantasy, crime, short stories, poetry and drama.
Pupil comments were very positive:
Really loved this event and got me inspired for writing
Thankyou for this opportunity-I had a great day and I’ve been greatly inspired by the workshops
I felt inspired to write and try out ideas from the workshops. I received good tips and advice which I think will benefit me and improve my writing.
I thought Friday was fun….the second half was very good – we wrote a script then acted. The starting speech was good. It was fun to see so many people interested in writing
The teacher workshop helped me think of different ways to create my folio. The author workshop was inspiring as we received useful tips for the future.
It was a great way to inspire and encourage people to write in their own way, without feeling self-conscious about what they were writing, while also helping to encourage people to read more and different kinds of writing pieces. I learnt a lot more about how to structure my work and keep the reader engaged, which helped massively with my confidence in writing.
The course was eye-opening. It taught me that I could write anything and it can have a beautiful meaning.
Thanks to all the teachers, professional writers and Edinburgh University staff involved in the event, for all their help to make this a memorable day for all who attended.
