This page explores practical questions to do with planning a poetry workshop.
OPTIONS
Various options are possible: a one-off workshop; a half-day or whole-day session; or a series of regular visits (a residency). You may also be interested in organizing a performance of poems by your pupils, or in producing an anthology of their writing. After-school teacher-training sessions can be arranged.
DATES OF AVAILABILITY & COSTS
Richard Burns offers workshops at all times of the school year. Charges are at standard rates, according to Arts Council recommendations, with some flexibility.
STAFF INVOLVEMENT
Best results are obtained when as many teachers and classroom assistants are as actively involved as possible, especially in working alongside pupils, helping and encouraging them, and in supporting weaker children. By being presernt in this way, teachers can also explore and develop their own ideas, have some of their questions addressed, and acquire useful classroom hints, introductory games, building strategies, methods, etc. It may be a good idea, too, for teachers to try out games themselves and/or to take notes while a workshop is going on, so that ideas can be shared with other staff in the school who may not be present at that particular session. A workshop rarely ends with children producing completely 'polished' versions of poems: it tends to be left deliberately open so that pupils will want to work on their drafts later in class. The function of a workshop is to inspire, energise and suggest techniques and ways forward. Workshops are designed to empower teachers too.
JOURNALISTS & PHOTOGRAPHERS
It is helpful to invite a local journalist and photographer. The children enjoy this and respond well. News coverage helps validate the school's work in the local community.
PARENTS & GOVERNORS
It is often possible to invite parents to attend a school poetry workshop. When this happens, children and parents have a chance to explore the writing process together. What is more, by attending a writing workshop, parents have an unusual opportunity to see 'teaching in action', and this helps them to become more actively involved in their own child's learning processes, and so to feel more confidence in the school's activities and aims. Reciprocally, parents' approval of the workshop activity validates it for the children. In this way, an entire positive feedback cycle is set in motion. It is a cycle that can keep rolling on.
Parental involvement can be especially valuable for Key Stage 1, and above all for Reception and Year 1 children. This is a time when many parents feel vulnerable, and miss their child. Such parents are often delighted to have this chance to see and be involved in what their their child is doing in school.
In general, the presence of adults at writing workshops helps to motivate pupils of all ages, oncluding secondary level.
It is also valuable to invite governors, regional advisors, and other adults associated with the school.