‘Escape!’ Rednock School launches Writing Competition
Rednock School has been busy working with the writer Gabriel Dylan on an exciting new project dreamt up by one of their students Libby Arnold.
Libby attended a meeting with Cam and Dursley Creatives, a group that brings residents together with artists, arts organisations and other stakeholders in the town and surrounding areas.
Their goal is to make the local area a creative and vibrant place to live, work and play. She suggested that it would be great for the group to help Rednock create a writing competition.
Hannah Duncan, Head of English at Rednock School said ‘We are proud to work alongside Cam and Dursley Creatives, Create Gloucestershire, author Gabriel Dylan and sponsors Renishaw and Gloucestershire County Council Youth Provisions to bring Rednock students an unprecedented lock down writing competition. We know that our students love the opportunity to engage with published authors and can learn so much from their expertise. A competition in lock down has meant we've needed to work with our partners to create a virtual experience like no other. Students have been given the opportunity to take part in masterclasses with published author Gabriel Dylan, to hone their writing skills. Students will then be given the chance to produce their own piece of writing which they can submit to the writing competition if they wish. We are so grateful to all our partners who have come together to ensure that our students are able to take part in such an imaginative and creative experience from their homes!
Rednock were really impressed with his dynamic energy and ideas on how to excite his audience despite being screen based. The school has launched the competition through the school portal Show my Homework; which enables all children to access the material. A positive from the re-imagined competition is that instead of the workshop being delivered to a small group of students face to face the films have enabled hundreds of young people to take part and learn from a professional writer.
Gabriel Dylan has developed four incredible on-line workshops especially for years 7, 8 and 9. We have also been able to invite year 6 pupils transitioning to the school in September. We are thrilled to include the current primary school pupils in this competition as it will help Rednock to welcome them into the secondary school community and help the children get used to accessing the school website.
In Gabriel’s first film he described how being snowed in during a ski-ing trip inspired his novel Whiteout. He feels by drawing on experiences and feelings a writer can really propel a storyline.
The workshops explore setting, character and pacing using a host of inspirational books, as well as his own. He is encouraging students to use their senses to describe a place and how this detail can cement a story in the readers mind.
After the first film was launched one of the year 7 student’s Isaac Irvine said: ‘I really enjoyed the first workshop, it was really nice to be able to listen to Gabriel and follow along with what he was saying instead of reading and going through questions on a worksheet. I particularly liked the extract from Whiteout that he read to us at the end of the session: very thrilling! I am very excited about the prospect of creating my own piece of amazing creative writing for the competition. Overall, I think that the workshops are a fantastic idea and a great opportunity to expand my knowledge of writing. I can't wait for the next lesson!’
As you can see it is a real treat for Rednock’s young people and has allowed the school to deliver something new to the pupils, particularly important while distance learning has to take place.
Gabriel Dylan 'I'm delighted to be working with Rednock School to inspire the local children and get them writing, especially at a time like this when lots of young people are unable to access school and lessons. I'm really excited to see the stories the Rednock pupils come up with!'
Libby Arnold who proposed the project says ‘I can’t believe that through funding support my idea is actually happening. I was really interested in his (Gabriel Dylan) story, it seems really, really interesting. I loved the extract he read about the ski-ing trip and how monsters were appearing! I give it a thumbs up! I can’t believe so many people are doing the competition, even my sister is entering and she seems really happy about it!
I’m really happy that it has come together, I want to thank the author and the donations that have made it happen. Thank you very much!’
Winning entries will be published and exhibited in the school, Dursley library and the local area. We hope that these can be shared with the community to celebrate our talented students!
Gabriel Dylan
Writer working with Rednock School
Latest Young Adult book
‘Whiteout’
Libby Arnold
The Rednock student who dreamt up the competition!
Background info:
Cam and Dursley Creatives is a group that brings residents together with artists, arts organisations and other stakeholders in the town and surrounding areas.
The goal of Cam and Dursley Creatives is to make the local area a creative and vibrant place to live work and play.
The group is open to all and meets approx. every 6 weeks in different venues. It is hosted by Create Gloucestershire as part of their county wide strategy to “make arts every day for everyone”. Create Gloucestershire is a not for profit umbrella group for the arts and cultural sector funded by Arts Council England.
“We are so pleased to be supporting Cam and Dursley Creatives as they emerge as a creative force in the area- in 6 months members have already raised enough funds to create a new Mosaic sculpture for the Sculpture Trail and to set up a new Writing Competition for young people in Rednock School. By working together and pooling resources the group has made so much more happen that they could have achieved alone.” Pippa Jones, Director Create Gloucestershire
Cam and Dursley Creatives has been meeting since December 2018. The group emerged from the Art of Libraries project that Create Gloucestershire developed in Dursley Library. Art of Libraries introduced new artists, programmes and projects into Dursley Library and provided children, young people and their parents a wide range of new activities and opportunities. There are a wealth of creative ideas and activities in the town as well as a huge appetite and ambition for more, but with no existing forum to bring people together activity was fragmented and risked being “under the radar especially for people who are socially isolated and/or just moved into Dursley.