I’ve been reflecting on a longish period of freelance work as a writer and teacher of writing after leaving a steady, salaried job in 2002. It has recalled me to a much cherished project with a primary school over a number of weeks which remains one of the most worthwhile-feeling projects I’ve done. I hope it both empowered the children to find ways of writing stories with all the micro skills of character creation and drama, but also asking them to consider the nature of society and how it functions best.
It was all part of a project called Arts across the Curriculum run in seven Scottish local authorities to trial the integration of arts and arts practitioners into mainstream teaching. It was a visionary project which led directly to the current Curriculum for Excellence but I doubt there is capacity now to pay for artists and writers to work alongside classroom teachers, sadly. Anyway I’m delighted that I had this opportunity which was a great joy. Read more at my Substack post.