Stephen Pearson-Jacklin takes us through NWP Norwich Writing Teachers’ July gathering.

It was a bright, warm and sunny day for a gathering in what is known as ‘a Fine City,’ with a carnival-style atmosphere over Norwich itself and a much more tranquil atmosphere in the Church of England Cathedral’s Refectory (also known as Bread Source cafe). A new face, all the way from Cambridge, joined us along with a fresh perspective on Writing agency and identities. Becky informed us of her study into looking at what stimulus we give children for writing: do we let them choose from their own ideas and imaginations, or do we provide pre-made, prescriptive and identikit prompts for them to use? It came as no surprise to NWP/WT regulars when Becky informed us that there were ‘no negative effects’ of giving children, or indeed perhaps writers at large, more agency over what they write. Immediately, we reflected on our own identities as teachers, writing teachers that is, and how we can communicate our message of creativity and freedom to fellow teachers - and more importantly, school leaders - in the face of a constrained curriculum. Why not let teacher be creative, responsive to the interests and needs of their pupils, and let the learners decide what works for them in their own writing? Why be needlessly restrictive just to fulfil objectives?

With that in the back of our minds and what we might do about it moving forward, Jeni directed us to Cairn by Kathleen Jamie and started us off by reading the poem Swift. The patterned language reflected the sight and movement of the little, summer birds and influenced our first task: writing words, as usual, but this time with a focus on proper nouns. Constrained by time, people heading to other events in the City and even a swift, bright visit by Sarah who had taken a break from her holiday in Cromer to join us, we read aloud just a few words each in our usual round style. Sarah, Becky and Lin had a run of words referencing another fine city, York, and their time there either as residents or students. More identities, more memories that were to influence our later writing.

Jeni proceeded to give out postcards and we chatted about what we saw. Landscapes, buildings, and we drew on our earlier words and proper nouns to write cinquains about our local area. To smiles all round, Mark had asked if he could go rouge and not only dispense with cinquains but give his “thoughts without postcards.” Inspired by the glorious pine tree on the postcard in front of me and with carnival in the back of my mind, I wrote about Wells-next-the-Sea, hastily trying to edit and rewrite before we read our cinquains and non-cinquains aloud. For Mark, going rogue paid off, the freedom and agency to go with his own inspiration carrying him through. To my right, Jenny Corner was worried that one of her lines was a syllable short. Again, it didn’t matter as she had chosen the perfect words and phrases for her own poem.

'Instants’ by Susan Wicks and The Book (again from Cairn) were read aloud by our friendly convener. We took these as inspiration to write poems about our childhood memories. Difficult for some as a topic, but there is always freedom in our group to discuss what we find difficult. After writing and again reading aloud, we discussed our difficulties. Some stimuli, as it turns out, isn’t fun for everyone to write about. We wrote longer prose about memories, childhood, our different identities and experiences.

Throughout it all, there was agency to talk about our difficulties (personal and otherwise), to write something different and again to go rogue. Memories, children’s identities, teaching and indeed writerly identities can be difficult. Life can be a hard path to follow. This conversation evolved, as it sometimes does, into lamenting the constraints of the curriculum upon children of all ages and we again became purposeful in the face of our challenges. In talking about what helps us and drawing parallels between our different writings, we discussed classical music and its benefit not only to us but to learners, writers and even mathematicians. Somehow, we had covered history, geography, science, maths, music, art and more in one session. Multiple memories. Multiple identities. Multiple responsibilities - and multiple reasons to go rogue a little in our classrooms in the interests of inclusion, promoting and broadening culture. I looked at the scribblings in the pages of my yellow-covered notebook and questioned my own memories. For me, primary school wasn’t always a fun time. What about the children in my class? What of their familial bonds? What about their imaginations and what makes them tick? What do they find difficult to write about and how do I/we remedy that to make them feel comfortable as writers?

Mark was more thoughtful about the writing itself, asking What do we do with our writing afterwards? When do we hammer it? Suddenly we were back to curriculum constraints as well as our own time pressures. These varied as much as our own lives and identities: meeting our own children, catching a train, resuming our holiday; and to attending the Pride carnival in the city that was busy away from our contemplative state.

“If ever there was a time for art, it’s now” - Claire Messud.