Moving Words

In 2004, four schools from the Teith Cluster Group took part in a writing project called Moving Words - an initiative part-funded by Live Literature Scotland. Writer Kenneth C Stevens and storyteller John Hamilton worked with pupils, helping them to develop their creative writing skills.

The schools were keen to explore ideas relating to their natural environment, and it was decided that the projects would focus primarily on trees and rivers.

Kenneth C Stevens worked with Kincardine-in-Menteith Primary School and Callander Primary School on a five week project called 'The PoeTree'. Both sessions began with a trip to a local woodland area. On returning to the classroom, pupils were able to take time to think about, and discuss, the kinds of things they might want to include in their poetry. The pupils then developed their writing skills with Kenneth over the four week period. This longer term residency allowed time for a relationship to develop between the writer and the class. It also gave Kenneth the opportunity to spend time with some of the more introverted pupils who often miss out on 'hit and run' class visits.

John Hamilton worked with Deanston Primary and Doune Primary. He began his Deanston session with a field trip to the River Teith, but instead of producing individual poems, Deanston and John decided to work on a group poem.

John's sessions with Doune also produced markedly different work, due to the fact that inspiration came from the pupils' imagination rather than from field trips. The Doune Primary poems tended to explore more expansive themes such as outer space and volcanoes.

Bringing writers and storytellers into schools is known to have an impact on the creativity and confidence of pupils, but as well as cultivating creativity, the project encouraged pupils to critically evaluate their own work, and was able to support a Continuing Personal Development for the teachers involved. 'Moving Words' was not only a language and writing project, it was also a project about nature and the local environment.

Kenneth Stevens completed his project by planting a tree with pupils, along with copies of all the poems that they had written during the visit. He suggested that just as the trees had inspired the development of the poems, the poems would nurture and develop the growing tree.

This symbolic act helped to foster a sense of responsibility for the local environment as well as providing a lasting memory of the visit. Hopefully the 'Moving Words' will be remembered by all pupils, who will now have a greater appreciation of poetry, language and the natural environment.