The Literature Department’s Creative writing workshops took place on the 13th and 14th of October 2022 and were facilitated by Eleanor Dobbs and Elizabeth-Irene Baitie.

They worked with Form 3 on Thursday the 13th, during the Literature lessons and on the 14th of Oct during PSHE they met with and spoke to Forms 4, Lower and Upper 6 Literature students. They also had discussions with the IGCSE and A-level Art students in the Art department during their visit. Elizabeth and Eleanor donated some books and illustrations to the Literature and Art departments respectively. Below is a student’s view on their visit.

The visit from Ms. Eleanor Taylor and Mrs Baitie: During breast cancer awareness week, we were delighted, for we had the companionship of Ms Eleanor, an illustrator, also known as Ms. Ellie and Mrs Elizabeth-Irene Baitie, an author. A warm welcome was given them by students and staff, and they certainly brought along some fun. The 2-period lesson passed like a whirr and before we realized it, the lesson was over. Mrs Baitie read an excerpt from her new book, ‘Crossing the stream’ which was really interesting. Experiences and illustrations done by Ms. Eleanor were shared, and we found interesting facts about Ms. Eleanor. She doesn’t cope well with electronic devices, so she prefers drawing on paper. But that’s totally fine with her, as she relishes accessing her artwork physically.

Designing seed packets was our task and we unearthed the creativity within us. It wasn’t exactly a hard assignment but it definitely was exciting. We were inspired by the artworks and examples that Ms. Eleanor created and that resulted in interesting and vivid artwork presented by students. After completing our designs, we filled our seed packets with vegetable seeds – carrot, lettuce, tomato and Okro. Fun and laughter filled our classroom and often instructions had to be given to calm students down due to high enthusiasm.

By Qi Wang 3Q