"I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the fantastic day of creative writing you delivered at Sidney Stringer School. The objective of the day was to inspire Yr11 students to work creatively focusing on culture/identity.  The work they produced was both inspiring and of a high standard. I am without doubt that was down to your enthusiasm and creativity.

A true indication of the success of a workshop is the student feedback.  Yr11 (particularly on the afternoon) are difficult to motivate.  However, the students have made some fantastic comments about the work they did with you and how much they enjoyed it.  The teachers who worked alongside you were equally inspired and hope to use some of your ideas in their lessons!

Thank you for all of you hard work and bringing creative writing back into English!  I do hope we can work together in the future on some more creative writing projects."  Theresa Mills, Head of English, Sydney Stringer School, Coventry

As well as being a leading Birmingham writer, Jacqui Rowe is a qualifed teacher. A former head of English in a boys' secondary school, she is also an Associate Advisor for Birminghham Local Authority.  She has considerable experience of working in schools with children, young people and adults.  See below for an article by Jacqui on her work for the Write On: Adventures in Writing programme, run by Birmingham Book Festival.

"Jacqui Rowe does for creative writing what Jamie Oliver does for school dinners: reinvents, revitalises and refreshes the parts that others simply don't teach." Brian McInally, Librarian, Hodge Hill School, Birmingham

"Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the workshop. Loved the Treasure Hunt exercise and the one after the coffee break. Thanks for your stimulating ideas and positive feedback."
"I so much enjoyed the course. You have such a gift of being able to encourage-of finding something good and interesting to say about every poem." Participants on courses run by Jacqui Rowe

"A fine poet and an excellent teacher" - Mario Petrucci

jacquirowe@hotmail.co.uk

07971018825

WORKSHOPS IN POETRY, FICTION AND SCREENWRITING, OR ANY COMBINATION OF THE THREE
For groups of up to 30 students in Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4 and post 16. Jacqui Rowe lead exciting, fun and innovative creative writing activities, designed to stimulate students' imagination and develop their confidence as writers. This can definitely support the writing elements of SATs, GCSE and 'A' level. Activities are all interactive and practical, and can lead to students creating work for display or publication in school. Can be done in school hours or as a weekend or holiday activity.

SPECIFIC ONE DAY PROGRAMMES
The Secrets of Story Writing
Fun activities including "Character Speed Dating" - making characters using boxes of objects; flash fiction - a challenge to write a story in exactly one hundred words; "Taking your Character for a Walk"; the secret formula for plotting a story.
A Screenplay in a Day
Go through all the stages of writing a screenplay - premise, creating characters, treatment, step outline, leading to a first draft screenplay for a short film.
Other programmes can be developed to suit your requirements

Adults as Writers Courses
For teachers and other adults in groups of up to 20 to develop creative writing skills in poetry and fiction at their own level.

How Do I Get them to Write?
Staff INSET session full of practical and fun ideas for encouraging students to write

From £250 for a whole school day,  £150 for half a day (up to 3 hours) including travel within the West Midlands and all other expenses. Please contact Jacqui Rowe to discuss requirements and longer residencies

Consultancy Advice and support on
· developing a writing programme as an out of hours activity or to stimulate writing within the National Curriculum
· selecting, preparing and publishing students' work

Please contact Jacqui to discuss individual requirements

Commissions, Collaborations, Readings, Competitions · Commissions accepted for poetry, fiction and articles
· Collaborations with other artists considered
· Also available for poetry and fiction readings at festivals, book weeks etc. and for judging poetry and fiction entries in literary competitions (adults and children), one-to-one mentoring.

Funding
For possible sources of funding to support any of these activities and programmes,

http://www.readingconnects.org.uk/

 Extracts from "WRITE ON! IN THE WEST MIDLANDS" by Jacqui Rowe, from Writing in Education, Autumn 2008, published by the National Association of Writers in Education

I have no sense of direction and I don't drive - I am a poet, after all - so for me getting to the classroom is usually the biggest challenge of working as a writer in schools.  Most school entrances aren't in the road that gives the school its name; in fact, the magic gate that actually opens is often the least likely way in.  It's not unusual to find me on the pavement outside frantically receiving directions on my phone from the receptionist.  Most school office staff are lovely and very welcoming, but occasionally they assume the manner of doctors' receptionists in TV sitcoms.  "Writer? Nobody told ME they were expecting a writer.  You'll just have to wait there." ... If you're lucky, a kind member of the office staff will take you to the classroom; if not you'll hear a string of directions involving the mysterious words "left" and  "right" and arrive at the classroom you're working in a good ten  minutes late having asked for help from every child and adult on the way...

My background in teaching was in secondary schools; I was head of English in a Birmingham boys' school before the National Curriculum succeeded where disruptive students had failed in driving me out of the classroom.  On Write On, where I've had residencies in twenty schools...I've most often been attached  to classes in Key Stage 2, though I have ventured into year 2 on a couple of occasions.  The work of primary schools, the dedication of so many teachers and the enthusiasm of the children has been a revelation to me.  Classrooms are brimming with knowledge and colour; relationships between pupils and staff are friendly and businesslike. I've learnt so much from the experience, not least that I should not underestimate the abilities and sophistication of year 4s who always respond best to real work, based on real writers' practice, and are infallible at sniffing out dumbing down and fobbing off.  I include plenty of games in my sessions and we use objects and pictures, particularly with questions to create characters; for the youngest classes I have a selection of "magical" objects. But we look, slowly and in manageable chunks, at story structure, ways of generating material for poems, elements of screenplays and dialogue; as stimulus I often use materials written for older age groups, sometimes my own fiction, aimed at adolescents, and poetry I've written for adult readers.  I often introduce processes I employ for making cut-up, collage poems and I've used elements of Mario Petrucci's "Creative Writing↔Science" pack (featured in Writing in Education,  Summer 2008) which, though intended for older children and adults, have gone down very well, particularly with children not attracted to the creative side of writing, who get there anyway through a scientific approach that suits them better.

Though the excitement of being visited by a different grown up can go a long way in stimulating enthusiasm in reluctant writers, there are always going to be some who resist, so I include activities where the excitement of the challenge distracts from the actual writing - write a story in exactly one hundred words, solve the puzzle of what's happening in this picture.  A significant reward of this immensely rewarding work - and it happens often - is being told that a particular child went to great lengths to avoid writing; now she can't wait for your visit and look at her with her head down, scribbling away, on her way to her first novel!

I rarely work with year 6, whose time is spent preparing for SATs.  Secondary schools, too, seem much more exam focused, even in year 7.   Reluctant writers in secondary tend to be more reluctant though, in my experience, the same techniques for engaging them work.  Logistically, it can be difficult to organise the residency because negotiations have to take place to remove the students from the timetable for half a day and there are often other activities like trips going on.  On two occasions I've had to finish my residency in secondary schools in the last week of term, depriving the students of their end of term films and games to come and do writing with me.  Not one of them complained...

Most teachers I work with...are engaged and supportive; they do the writing activities along with the children and are thrilled by the outcome; they plan follow up work, publicise the programme to the rest of the school.  Some of them come to Staff as Writers, a particular feature of Write On in which schools involved in the project can send staff to five twilight sessions.  The staff  develop writing at their own level and experience what it feels like to be a writer. I've taught this course to staff from Birmingham and Solihull for eight terms and every one has been different.  Some staff come because they already write or want the opportunity to try; a large number come because they hope to pick up some new activities they can use in the classroom; a few are sent by their schools without knowing what the course is about, with a brief to discover, and then disseminate, ways of getting the children to write.  Since many of my activities work at both child and adult level, the process of actually doing them is valuable because it opens teachers' eyes to the challenge - "I've set my class haiku to write lots of times and I never  realised how difficult it was." - and to the reward.  Many who have not written creatively, except reports, since their own school days discover the delight of crafting a piece of writing, often exposing their feelings when they read them to the rest of the group.  I've occasionally been called in to read when the emotions are too raw.   I admire the staff  who stick with the course, because they have so many demands on their time - parents' evenings, planning, staff meetings, the inevitable report writing.  But I, of all people, know how a course like Staff as Writers can change your life. A decade or so ago, I participated in Teachers as Poets, led by David Hart.  I was already writing then but the experience of going to workshops, sharing my work with others, finally made me feel like a writer.  And eventually, I stopped being a Teacher and became a Poet.

Staff as Writers and Write On residencies only last a term so, before long, you're saying goodbye, which is always painful... but I don't usually expect to go back, no matter how much I've enjoyed it and bonded with the children.   Importantly, if Write On residencies are successful, it's about the work, not personalities.  If the children value the experience, it's for what they have done and what they have achieved. 

At some point, there will always be a question and answer session about what it's like to be a writer - "Where do you get your ideas from?" "When did you start writing?" "What car have you got?" "Are you famous?"   Because my name is similar to that of a very famous children's writer, sometimes someone asks if I'd like to be her, with her enormous wealth.  And I always say, "No, because she doesn't get to come out into schools and work with people like you."  And I mean it.

© Jacqui Rowe 2008