Readers make writers!
Top Young Adult author Tia Fisher visits Claremont High School and is impressed with what she finds
It isn’t every day an award-winning author visits your school, but that’s exactly what happened on Wednesday 10th July 2024 when Tia Fisher came to Claremont. Her debut book for young adults, Crossing the Line, won this year's prestigious Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medal for Writing – the Carnegie Medal being the Oscars of children’s and YA fiction! A hard-hitting book, Crossing the Line tells the story of 14-year-old Erik, who gets caught up in drug crime and struggles to escape.
Tia was in school to lead a series of creative writing workshops with ‘Most Able’ students from years 7, 8, 9 and 10. How to ‘Build a Story’ was the focus of the session with years 7 and 8, while the older students explored writing in ‘narrative verse’. As well as encouraging writing for pleasure, the sessions developed the students’ writing skills in order to achieve academic success – creative writing is a key component of the English curriculum and a key focus of the GCSE English Language examination.
The workshops had a significant impact on the participants.
‘The workshop with Tia Fisher helped me to produce stories step-by-step and identify areas for improvement,’ says Hanif Mujaddedi in Year 7. ‘I liked working in a group and found the experience very inspiring and enjoyable.’
Amy D’Mello in Year 8 agrees: ‘The workshop was very interesting and it really helped me to use my imagination while creating a story. I think it will help me with my GCSEs and I feel more confident now with creative writing.’
‘Creating narrative verse gave me a different perspective and outlook on writing as a whole,’ reflects Year 10 student Debbie Johnston. ‘The workshop was very insightful as well as fun and engaging.’
Ms Dixon, who organised the visit and workshops, was clearly pleased with the results: ‘It was fantastic to be able to give our Most Able students the opportunity to work with Tia on developing and improving their creative writing skills. The workshops were fun, inspiring and challenging and the students had a productive and enjoyable time.’
And what about Tia? How did she find her visit to Claremont?
‘Visiting schools is honestly one of the best bits about being a writer for young people,’ she says. ‘The Claremont High groups of years 7, 8, 9 and 10 that I workshopped with were sparking with fresh and imaginative ideas! You are a very talented bunch and I love the way that your teachers and librarian really prioritise the importance of reading at school. Readers make writers!’
Thanks, Tia! Come back soon…