Last year, we hosted our first FHS Literary Festival, which was a huge success! Our aim for this year’s festival was to take pupils outside the classroom and introduce them to the wider world of writing and publishing.
In the month running up to the start of the festival, we have been fortunate to have Cat Preston leading a series of creative writing workshops. Each week, pupils from the Thirds to the Upper Sixth have worked on several pieces of writing, using a variety of stimuli. Cat is an inspirational teacher and mentor; she has really boosted each writer’s confidence and the work that has been produced is exceptional. We are putting the final pieces into an anthology of work, and we listened to Imogen and Lisa (Thirds) read a moving extract that they co-wrote during Monday’s assembly.
On Monday, we kickstarted the first day of the festival with an excellent Sixth Form lecture by S.V. Leonard about the world of publishing and routes into getting published. Leonard talked the pupils through her journey and offered them a wealth of tips about the industry. Her books ‘The Islanders’ and ‘The Influencers’ are brilliant page turners; so much so that one of our Sixth Formers had finished ‘The Islanders’ by Tuesday morning!
On Tuesday afternoon, we welcomed Juliette Atkinson from UCL. Juliette spoke to our UV and Sixth Formers about Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’. Juliette’s energy and enthusiasm for Bronte was inspiring. Her ideas about Jane’s restlessness particularly struck a chord with pupils who were able to articulate some high-level and engaging ideas during their subsequent English lessons.
As the festival was starting to draw to a close, Joseph Elliot delivered two fantastic talks to both our Thirds and LIV. From being an actor in CBeebies (cue: huge excitement from both year groups) to a published author of a fantastic book trilogy, he wowed both audiences with his insights into how he got his books published as well as the creation of his characters and settings. It was particularly interesting to learn about the different artwork used for book covers in different countries – and the fact that 10,000 books can be printed in 2 hours! Yet, the writing of the book from start to finish took over 4 years. A huge number of books were signed by the author too!
Ms Chapman, Head of English
