Creative writing workshop from inspiring mental health author
Creative writing workshop from inspiring mental health author
We were pleased to welcome author Tana MacPherson-Smith (and Grim the monkey) to Spalding Academy as she kindly gave her time to speak to a class of Year 10 students by delivering a creative writing workshop, and also spoke to the whole of Year 9 about mental health in an assembly.
As well as bringing her writing skills as a published author, Tana has vast knowledge about mental health as she founded ClearMinds Education in 2015 to improve mental health in children and teenagers.
Her insightful book, ‘There’s a Monkey on Your Shoulder’ was written for teenagers about teenage experiences and is a powerful story of inner battles, personal growth, and triumph over trauma. She used her own personal experiences from when she was a teenager and now a mother of two to relate to the day-to-day challenges young people face.
In the creative writing workshop, Tana inspired our students to develop and hone their writing skills and use of language to develop characters and set scenes. The group explored the use of key words used in various paragraphs from ‘There’s a Monkey on Your Shoulder’ and learnt useful tips on the key elements required to structure a story.
During this interactive and engaging workshop, students were able to put what they learnt into practice by writing the next part of the story. Tana was really impressed with the ideas and creativity demonstrated by our students and who knows – their ideas could even be used in a future book!
Copies of Tana MacPherson’s book, ‘The Monkey On My Back’ can now be found in the school library and we are sure that students will enjoy reading this. Click here for an Amazon link to the book.
