Poetry workshop inspires students

Award-winning poet and journalist Rae Howells has paid a visit to the Gorseinon campus to hold a creative workshop with A Level English students.

Rae, a former student of the college, talked about her career to date before giving a poetry reading and setting the students a writing challenge based on a news story and series of photographs.

“I wanted the students to think about the way ideas collide in a poem to give it depth and complexity,” says Rae, who took first place in the Welsh Poetry Competition 2017 for her poem Airlings. “They were then able to weave their ideas together to create a poem of their own.”

“It was fantastic to welcome Rae back to the college and the students found it very inspiring to hear about her career and she success she has enjoyed,” adds Joanna Dudley, Curriculum Leader for English. “To be able to construct a poem and then share it with the rest of the class was a great experience for them and will hopefully give them confidence to write more poetry in the future. In fact, they are already arranging some performance poetry for the upcoming Diversity Fayre at the college as a direct result of this session with Rae.”

Pictured (L-R): Matilda Noot, Rae Howells, Rebecca Jones and Alex Biffin.
Photo: Sam Webb