School for Writers

Our School for Writers training course, developed in partnership with Arvon, BookTrust and The Reading Agency helps writers who want to engage with schools, libraries and cultural and community venues to deliver workshops for children and young people. On this page you can find some of the key resources from the course.

Expressing your offer

Our writer self-reflection tool aims to ensure you can identify your skills and what steps you are currently taking to market yourself.

We have provided a 'one pager' by School for Writers alumni Laura Knowles which clearly articulates her offer to schools to download from this page.

This film explains the steps that author Tom Palmer and staff at St Cedd's School take to prepare for a visit:

Other great examples from writers are:

• https://www.mgleonard.com/school-visits/ - Maya offers lots of information about her sessions, contact details, videos, quotes from happy teachers and children, downloadable classroom resources to use in advance.
• https://tompalmer.co.uk/school-visits-with-tom-palmer/ - Tom’s website is equally comprehensive when it comes to free resources, videos etc.

Please be aware that most schools expect visitors to have a DBS check.

Writing activities to use with children and young people

We have provided a workshop ideas cards to download from this page.

There are about 120 writing activity ideas in this inspiration pages document.

This film provides some insight into Tom Palmer's approach to delivering workshops in schools:

Simon Mole’s Youtube channel is full of great ideas and games for poetry workshops.

The Dare to Write website from Paper Nations is full of writing activities aimed at children.

Further support and guidance

Society of Authors - A Guide for Authors Visiting Schools and Libraries

NAWE - The Writer's Compass

Authors Aloud

With thanks to Tom Palmer and the staff and pupils at St Cedd's School for inviting us to film their workshop.