Young people to explore the written world
An innovative partnership has been forged by The Highland Council, Moniack Mhor Writers’ Centre and Abriachan Forest Trust for a creative writing project which will give P7 pupils from 11 schools the opportunity to work with professional writers after exploring and getting inspiration from the forest.
Running over a two week period, the pupils will spend the mornings in the Abriachan forest planting new trees and searching for animal tracks and signs ranging from mammals, dragonflies on the wing, trout in the burn and toads in the undergrowth. After a picnic lunch the learners will move to Moniack Mhor Writer’s Centre and work with writers Linda Cracknell and Gerry Cambridge to compose poems or riddles on what they saw during the morning session.
Linda Cracknell and Gerry Cambridge have both been previously involved in The Written World project. Linda writes short stories, radio dramas, and creative non-fiction and has won the Macallan / Scotland on Sunday short story competition. She has also been shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Award and the Robin Jenkins Literary Award for environmental writing and in 2007 received a Creative Scotland Award for a project linking walking and writing. Gerry is a published writer and poet. In October 2006 he became the Scottish Poetry Library's first ever "virtual poet" and was a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at the University of Edinburgh between 2006-2009 before becoming the Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Glasgow Caledonian University.
Christine Matheson from The Highland Council’s Glenurquhart Community Library and Learning Centre and Abriachan Forest Trust has been involved in co-ordinating the project. She said: “This is the third year of The Written World project and every year the participating schools consistently produce work of a very high quality. Physical activity in the outdoors, observing nature at close range, and the opportunity to work with writers is a winning formula .”
The primary schools taking part this year are – Smithton; Merkinch; Dalneigh; Bishop Eden’s, Kilchuimen; Coulhill, Alness; Beauly; Teanassie; Tomnacross; St Clement’s, Dingwall; Kiltearn, Evanton.
The Highland Council’s Chairman of Education, Culture and Sport, Councillor Bill Fernie said: “This is a fantastic example of how outdoor learning can support literacy under the radar and across the curriculum. I am sure all the young people taking part will really benefit from the experience. We are lucky to have such a wealth of wildlife and I think it is a great idea to get inspiration from the natural world to create a very unique piece of written world.”