The National Writing Project (UK): Directors' report 2016
Annual report for the period of activity Jan – Dec 2016.
Publications:
Research:
Partnerships:
NWP keynotes and workshops, 2016
Writing residential:
Teachers' writing groups:
Website:
Simon Wrigley and Jenifer Smith
January 2017
Publications:
- On 23 Jan at the English and Media Centre, NWP directors, Jeni Smith and Simon Wrigley, launched their book of the project, ‘Introducing Teachers’ Writing Groups’ (Routledge, Dec 2015). This was followed by a second launch at UEA, Norwich, on 15 April.
- Jeni Smith’s article ‘Writing Teachers: what we are learning’ was published in NAWE's 'Writing in Education' no.70, autumn 2016, ISSN 1361-8539
Research:
- Visits were made to many schools in East Anglia. Other schools visited included St Pauls School, Milton Keynes where a longitudinal study of KS3/4 writers is in its fourth year.
Partnerships:
- Jeni and Simon, were commissioned by the National Literacy Trust to lead writing workshops for teachers in Darwen (9 Feb), and Brighton (13 April).
- Partnership with UEA was strengthened through meetings with Richard Andrews, the new Head of the School of Education in July and December. The Writing Teachers group will continue to provide the context for an MA module in Writing Pedagogy.
- Jeni Smith contributed to a Teachers’ Writing Workshop run by the novelist Lynne Bryan at the UEA FLY Festival; June 20th 2016.
- Partnership with the Whitechapel Art Gallery was established through meetings with the Education officer, Sam Ayre, on 10 May and 12 Sept.
- The project also received international attention from colleagues in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. Jeni Smith and Mari Cruice were invited to observe and share practice at the Summer Institute for Writing Teachers at Maynooth University, Dublin. They spent 7th and 8th July there and shared an NWP workshop with participants.
- Jeni and Simon presented NWP practices at NATE’s ITE symposium, ‘Communities of Practice: participation and resistance’, at the British Library (17 Nov). Afterwards, Jeni convened a group of university lecturers in order to strengthen the presence of NWP research and approaches in ITE.
NWP keynotes and workshops, 2016
- NATE conference (24/25 June) workshop: Jeni Smith;
- Goldsmiths Writers and Teachers conference, University of London (2 July) keynote and workshop: Simon Wrigley and Jeni Smith;
- NAWE conference (11-13 Nov) workshop: Jeni Smith;
- St Crispins School, Wokingham (29 Jan) workshop: Simon Wrigley;
- Durham University with PGCE students (4 Feb) workshop: Simon Wrigley;
- Newnham Middle School, Bedford (22 Feb) workshop: Simon Wrigley;
- Cambridge University, Homerton English mentors (20 June) workshop: Simon Wrigley;
- Shade Primary School, Todmorden (26 Sept) workshop: Simon Wrigley;
- The Institute of Education, UCL (9 Dec) workshop: Simon Wrigley.
Writing residential:
- Jeni Smith organised the first NWP residential at Belsey Bridge, Suffolk (23-25 Oct). It was attended by 10 teachers from 6 different NWP writing groups, as well as 6 day visitors from Writing Teachers, UEA. Experiences and evaluations from 8 perspectives were reported in a sequence of blogs. A second NWP residential is planned for Oct 2017.
Teachers' writing groups:
- In May a survey of group leaders was undertaken to find out numbers of teachers involved, patterns, styles and frequency of meetings. The results are reported on the website blog.
- 3 new NWP teachers’ writing groups were launched in 2016: Oxford (9 June), Cambridge (29 Sept), Lincoln (7 Nov).
- Tragically, in August, Morlette Lindsay, inspirational NWP group leader at the Institute of Education, passed away after bravely fighting cancer for many years.
- As of Dec 2016, there were 17 NWP teachers’ writing groups (down from 21 in 2015):
- Brighton, Sussex: Theresa Gooda
- Bristol University: Lorna Smith
- Cambridge: Alison Binney
- Cardiff: Lisa Tippings
- Eastbourne: Rachel Crystal
- Gloucestershire: Esther Menon
- Halifax: Laura Ovenden
- Lincoln: Stephanie Wilkinson
- London (Free Spaces): John Wilks, Helen Atkinson, Cat Barr and Mouse Choudhury
- London (Islington Secondary): Emma Simpson
- London (Whodunit): Simon Wrigley
- Luton: Kat Burr
- Milton Keynes - teachers: Emma Exelby
- North Wales, Gwynedd: Sara Williams
- Norwich (UEA Writing teachers): Jenifer Smith
- Occold, Suffolk: Jeni Smith
- Oxford: Isy Mead
Website:
- The NWP Website (nwp.org.uk) continued to grow, and blogs continued to be posted monthly. 193 teachers joined online (up from 164 in 2015). Contacts through the website increased from 34 in 2015 to 52 by the end of 2016. In the week ending Saturday 7 January 2017, there were 712 visitors (up from 584 on 12 June 2016) and 3,039 page views (down from 3,716 on 12 June 2016).
Simon Wrigley and Jenifer Smith
January 2017