100 students in years 7 to 9 from Sittingbourne Community College, Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey and Brompton Academy recently attended Creative Writing campus days at our Canterbury campus during the summer period. These days formed part of longer series of projects that the students have undertaken as part of the KS3 literacy pathway run by the School of English.
Students spent their time exploring the campus and undertaking writing tasks inspired by what they saw. These included following the Ogham Tree trail around campus to discover what stories these old trees might hide, completing a campus word search to inspire their writing, using the Templeman Library as a source for found poetry, and re-imagining the campus as a setting for genre fiction or a source for transformation by the perception of different characters.
To conclude the projects, the students from each school have had their writing published by the School of English in a bespoke volume of our Ink Slingers anthology, and students from Sittingbourne Community College and Brompton Academy were able to ‘launch’ their anthologies while on campus with a special reading in the School of English undergraduate common room, attended by writers and members of university staff (and with lots of cake!).
For more information about this activity, please contact outreach@kent.ac.uk