NEXT POETRY RETREATS

 

New Vision Trust - May 2023 - New Forest

Elmhurst, Nelson, Gallions, Vicarage, Downshall Primary

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Glade Primary School - June 2023 - New Forest

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Our Poetry Retreats are empowering visits to sites of natural beauty where all children and adults can throw themselves into four days of expressive, immersive writing. So few children in urban communities get the chance to explore the great outdoors, and we use it as our playground and our muse. Children explore a huge range of poetic forms whilst learning to think poetically, and mould their thoughts and feelings into words.

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Generally, a small number of schools join together for the project, with each one sending a small number of children and a teacher. We begin the project as strangers, but by the end, we are friends united through our shared experience as real writers.

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We stay in wonderful YHA hostels and have run previous retreats among the wild horses of the New Forest and the imposing cliffs of the South Downs. We spend our days wandering through forests, along rivers, over beaches and atop mountains. 

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The project is led by Jonny Walker and Adisa the Verbaliser. The focus is on self-expression and self-reflection as well as the craft of writing. Self-discipline and resilience are built up through pre-breakfast martial arts sessions with Adisa! 

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An additional version of the retreats in planned for Autumn 2023, with Jonny working in partnership with David Fisher, the Director of Rooted Learning. These retreats will combine poetry and forestry.

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Children are empowered to value their voice and to perform confidently. Their written work can be published as an anthology for them to keep, as an optional extra in the project.

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The project involves a pre-retreat meeting with all children and staff, a parents' meeting that Jonny will facilitate, the four day retreat, and then a reunion at a later date, at which children can receive their printed poetry anthologies (optional).

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