Creative inspiration

This half-term a group of 15 Year 9 girls ventured to Devon for a week of intensive writing instruction at the Arvon Foundation in Totleigh Barton.  The aim of an Arvon course is to encourage anyone, regardless of background, to find their voice through writing. Founded as a writers’ retreat in the 1960s, Arvon boasts a guestbook that is a veritable “Who’s Who” of British writers including J K Rowling, Andrew Motion, Michael Morpurgo, Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage.

During the week, the girls had daily workshops on the crafts of fiction and poetry writing, headed by novelist, Tiffany Murray, and recent Cholmondeley Award Winner, poet, Peter Sansom. They also took time out to write by themselves and within groups.

Huddled round a fifteen foot oak table in a fifteenth-century farmhouse, the girls pushed themselves, and each other, to take creative risks with their work, an experience that they will never forget.  In addition to these workshops, the girls had the rare privilege to enjoy one-to-one tutorials with each of the professional writers, where they could discuss not only the details of a line but also a life dedicated to writing.

Each evening closed with a formal reading of recent work. Tiffany Murray and Peter Sansom read selections from various works, and on Wednesday, the girls were very fortunate to hear from the novelist Jane Feaver, when she visited for the evening and read from her most recent collection of short stories.  On the final evening, the girls took turns to read from their own work that they had penned over the week, a fantastic way to end the experience.

Head of English, Mr Gifford said “It was certainly an experience for the girls.  An experience that took them away from their normal day-to-day lives, as they fully immersed themselves in their own creative work.  It was lovely to see their pride in having achieved something they might never have thought possible.” 

For more information contact:

Rebecca Conroy, Senior Marketing Executive, Pipers Corner School. Telephone 01494 719850 or email [email protected] | www.facebook.com/PipersCornerSchool | @PipersCornerSch