Girls Retreat into Writing

Over the February 2020 half term break, a group of twenty-nine Girls’ Division students ranging from Year 6 through to Year 13 travelled to Patterdale Hall with Ms Field, Mrs Elkin and Mrs Crowther for the annual Writing Retreat. Jane Kingsford, an accomplished writer who recently retired from teaching English in the Girls’ Division, was there to greet pupils on their arrival and worked with one group throughout the week alongside poet Mandy Coe. A second group spent the half term working with poet Peter Sansom and author Tiffany Murray. Mornings were spent in workshops, with free afternoons for walking, eating lots of cake and writing. Evening tutorials enabled the girls to hone and refine their work, and the girls produced outstanding pieces of creative writing, both prose and poetry. On the last evening, girls gave feedback about their week, with one girl explaining that the retreat was an ‘oasis for creativity’ and another describing it as a ‘calming and joyous’ experience. Thirteen pupils who attended the Writing Retreat shared their work at the annual Poetry Festival, which also featured a performance from UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage.

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