During the April school holidays, Children’s Book Network (CBN) invited FunDza to visit it in Clanwilliam and run writing workshops for a group of teens. CBN runs workshops for primary school children. But, this holiday, they wanted to offer something for high school learners too.
For 9 and 10 April, Dorothy Dyer and Ros Haden braved the 35-plus degree heat and headed for Clanwilliam to run Write4Life Writing Me workshops for about 10 teens from the area. Luckily there was some relief from the high temperatures – as the workshops were held in an air-conditioned library, with friendly and helpful librarians.
As part of the workshops, teens wrote poetry as well as a very short story of a memory after reading an extract from Chris van Wyk’s memoir, Shirley Goodness and Mercy. They told stories inspired by objects, wrote a group essay, and played a FunDza-created version of 30 seconds.
The teens – all speakers of English as a first additional language – were engaged, responsive and creative, and it was satisfying to see the little touches in their work that demonstrated what they had learnt in this short time.
Many of them came from the relatively well-resourced high school of the area (the workshop was freely available to any high school learner).
Reflecting on the experience, Dorothy noted, “It was interesting to see how these teens had opportunities – talent shows, dancing classes, small classes at school, various sport clubs – that did not feature in the experiences of our many other previous workshop participants who attended schools with huge classes and very little extra-mural activity.”
Both Dorothy and Ros loved seeing first-hand the work of the Children’s Book Network, led by Lesley Beake, with their carefully crafted and creative workshops for primary school children in Clanwilliam that have been running for years.
Dorothy said, “Although it is easy to get overwhelmed by the challenges facing our education system, we are constantly meeting people who are doing amazing things that have a real and visible impact on the young people involved. Without a doubt, this is one of the best things about working at FunDza!”