Considering starting a creative writing group for children...

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

and I need some advice! I am a writer...fiction, scripts and copy. I am published and broadcast so I'm obviously in a position to share my knowledge but the trouble is, I'm not terribly experienced with teaching.

I have run some drama classes in the past for children aged between 5 and 17 and to be honest it was a nightmare. I found it very stressful.

I want to somehow offer this club for either children in my own DC school or to children in the wider community.

Which would be the best way to start? Offering it at school would be welcome I know as the HT has asked me to consider a drama group in the past...but I'm not keen!

I suspect there would be a lot of interest in creative writing as it's quite an academic school...it's state but they have a lot of "geeky" kids who enjoy academic pursuits.

Would I be foolish when I've not got much experience with children? What age to begin at? Any ideas for activities which will interest them?

I thought the first meeting could involve them choosing a name for the club....using pictures and various words which they associate with literature of all types...and letting them begin to experiment and learn to work as a group.

Or is that not very inspired? Another idea is to use the club to come up with an anthology of their work at the end of the term...perhaps they could illustrate it too...and we could sell them for school funds? I would be offering this to the school at no charge as I feel it is a way for me to learn...and then when I am confident I would like to run something in the community.

Sounds interesting. I like the idea of developing an anthology of the children's work.

However, if you don't have much experience of working with children, I wouldn't rush in too quickly... I would approach the school and maybe ask if you could observe some writing lessons to gauge the children's abilities and the kinds of activities that go down well. (Obviously you will need to be CRB checked if not already- the school can organise this).

As far as ages go, I would start with older children, maybe year 5? As they will (hopefully) be more secure in the basics.

Activities- to get the best writing they'll need a fair bit of guidance. I'd start with a stimulus (picture, short film clip or even better a mysterious object or locked chest!). Spend a while discussing the stimulus and brainstorming words and phrases, then introduce a specific task- we're going to write the story of how the object came to Britain, or a character profile of the man in the picture etc.

They are also likely to need to see lots of good writing modelled, so show them how you would approach the task.

Also, the school will have individual whiteboards for the children- these are fabulous! Get them to write a sentence using 2 given words, or a sentence starting with a particular phrase, or a paragraph which uses suspense... Then share and discuss.

(Hope I haven't stated the obvious too much there! Good luck if you go ahead with it).

That's all very helpful Pozzled thank you so much...observing is a great idea.

No you've not stated the obvious at all...as a non teacher it's not at all obvious!

Perhaps you could take a look at something similar that is out there already (well it is here in Gloucestershire) Build a Book

www.build-a-book.org/Home.html

The website might give you ideas...

My girls did this - they spent 3 mornings in the school hols producing their own book - with illustrations too - lots of creative writing exercises, vocabulary work, bouncing ideas around - and they got a small book that they have written at the end of it. They could do it every Thursday after school for 8 weeks or 3 half days in the hols.

They loved it!!! (the smiles in the gallery pages really do show there is a lot of enthusiasm for creative writing out there!)