Workshops
Below is a selection of the most popular school workshops. All workshops can be tailored for all ages and abilities from age 7-16. If your school has specific ideas or themes (e.g. identity, community, etc) please contact Craig to discuss your requirements.
Football is Poetry
What has poetry got to do with football?
What does it take to write a good football poem?
Two teams use their favourite football words (score, goal, striker, etc) to create a poem. The more football words you use, the more goals you score. This is a fun workshop with a competitive edge!
Craig is the BBC RaW Football Stories Co-ordinator and
has held football writing events at Manchester United, Arsenal, Nottingham
Forest, Liverpool, Manchester City and Everton.
Click here for more about Craig's World of
Football!
Rhythm & Rhyme
What is the difference between music and poetry?
Is poetry just a different kind of music?
This is a brand new, innovative, fun and stimulating workshop highlighting original writing and performance. Pupils are encouraged to explore the rhythmic and performance elements of poetry. This is an interactive, poetry party that comes complete with bongos!
This Is Not A Leek
When is a leek not a leek?
How do you make the un-poetic poetic?
In a poem magical things can happen. Puddles can become
dead snowmen, light bulbs can turn into electric onions and leeks can turn
into feather dusters. Poetry is all about finding new ways to see old things.
This is a challenging writing workout that proves there is no limit to the
creative imagination.
Tin Can Poetry
What can you put in a tin?
Beans, peas, carrots - what about dreams, laughter, hope?
This workshop makes the distinction between the things
you can see, touch, taste, and those you can only feel, hear, believe in.
The workshop challenges pupils to think metaphysically about everyday things
in an original way and develop their own writing style and a unique sense
of voice. Tin Can Poetry can, and will, produce often unexpected results.
Schools
“Craig is an entertaining and innovative speaker who
works with extraordinary enthusiasm. Pupils of all ages were intrigued by
the idea of performance poetry and many were inspired by Craig to produce
and perform their own excellent work. Craig has a knack of bringing out
the best in the students and giving them a relevant way to access poetry
and literature, all in all, his visits were a resounding success.”
Gaynor Jones, Whole School Literacy Co-ordinator
Aston Comprehensive School, Sheffield
Working as a Writer in Schools, Craig Bradley enthuses about books, encouraging pupils to write, to widen their reading, and to make writing and creative thinking fun.
Craig tours the country visiting around 150 schools a year, holding writing workshops and readings, working with thousands of pupils of all ages and abilities. As a professional writer, Craig can offer a different perspective on books, reading, writing and literature.
Craig’s workshops focus on original writing, imagination and performance. Pupils are encouraged to write and perform their own poems in a creative, fun and constructive atmosphere. This key performance element brings poems to life in the classroom.
“Craig held us all spellbound, charming us with his
sense of fun and enthusiasm, but really getting the point home that poetry
isn’t dull rhyming couplets, but a vibrant, living entertainment form.”
Helen Robinson, Literature Development Officer
Oldham Libraries
Craig sets out to demystify the often complex and elitist image surrounding poetry and passionately believes that poetry is relevant to everyone. It is about who we are, what we are and where we are.
“Never have I heard poetry read with such enthusiasm
or seen children clamour to take part as they did with Craig, he was brilliant.
The young people loved him – so much that they produced some impressive
verses themselves. If you want to inspire a classroom into writing then
you cannot get a better person than Craig Bradley.”
Jane Brookes
Blackpool Libraries
QCA calls for more Creative English
"The way English is taught in schools should be
reformed amid calls for more "creative" teaching, a study suggested.
Poets, journalists and actors should be required to spend more time in schools
and children should be taught through drama from an early age. Children
should be taught to read whole books, not just extracts for exams.
The "English 21" report, from the Qualifications
and Curriculum Authority identified some key themes:
A desire from teachers for more time to focus on the creative and arts aspect of English, which has been lost under perceived pressure to prepare for exams.
A sense that English lessons were too remote from the outside world and calls for more contact with professional writers and actors as a key part of the curriculum."
Yorkshire Post 30/09/05
