Education
Mission Statement
Through its education programme, the RSL is working to widen access to literature. The RSL aims to provide state school pupils with the opportunity to see some of the country’s greatest writers discuss their works and, in doing so, promote a culture of reading and writing in the whole school community.
“Children should not only read great writers, but meet them in the flesh. The RSL’s new Schools Outreach Programme, which will make this possible, is a thrilling initiative.”
Sir Michael Morpurgo, OBE
The Programme So Far
The Royal Society of Literature Outreach Programme was conceived in collaboration with the charity First Story. First Story arranges for distinguished authors to run creative writing workshops for students in challenging[1]secondary schools across the country, working with them over the academic year. From March2012, Royal Society of Literature Fellows began to visit a selection of First Story schools as part of the pilot scheme. Pilot schools between March and July included Mulberry School for Girls in Whitechapel, Ellis Guilford School in Nottingham, George Greens’ School in London and Nottingham Academy.
Initially it was felt that small masterclasses with Sixth Form students would be the best way to allow pupils to explore writing – both their own and other people’s – beyond the narrow confines of exam syllabuses. However, after our first event with Sebastian Faulks at Mulberry School for Girls, amendments were made to the scope of the scheme. Feedback suggested that it would be more beneficial to the schools if as large a number of pupils and teachers as possible could be included. With this in mind, it was decided to expand the reach of events to include not only A-Level English pupils, but also pupils and teachers from other disciplines who are studying relevant periods, and in this way, to promote a culture of reading and writing in the whole school community. The final event in the pilot, held at George Greens’ School in July 2012, was in this format.
Fellows involved in the pilot include Sebastian Faulks, Victoria Glendinning, Colin Thubron and Tom Stoppard.
[1] ‘Challenging’ refers to schools in which more than 50 per cent of pupils are considered deprived according to the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) or in which GCSE results fall in the lowest third of the national distribution.
Plans For The Future
In November 2012, the full Outreach Programme was launched. Over the course of the academic year, twelve of these expanded school events will be held in First Story Schools across the country. Each school will receive a selection of the visiting Fellow’s books for their library and events will be recorded where possible so that a wider range of people can access them through our website.
Testimony
Feedback collated from the pilot events has been extremely positive. Over 90% of the students claimed to have been inspired to both read and write more in their free time as a result of the programme, and found the talks interesting and informative, giving them access that they would not otherwise have had to the works and lifestyle of prominent authors.
Comments from the students at the Sebastian Faulks event included, “It gave me an insight into some of the issues writers encounter in writing a novel and their inspiration”. One of the teachers added: “The students were captivated by the writer who was warm, accessible and autobiographical. He opened the students' eyes to the profound possibilities of literature and his own creative process”.
A teacher who attended the Victoria Glendinning event said, “The students really enjoyed themselves. It’s a big ask to appear in an unfamiliar school and produce a meaningful,
engaging one-off session to students you don't know but Victoria rose to the occasion brilliantly. It was perfectly pitched and had the right balance of listening and
doing.”
