Danny Rhodes - Creative Writing Workshop

The English department recently had the honour and privilege to host Danny Rhodes who is a published author. He ran two, one hour work-shops; with our gifted and talented students in English and with our Year 10 top set.

To the uninitiated, Danny Rhodes writes fiction for adults and children alike. He has published two novels to date, as well as numerous short stories. His debut novel was the touching and memorable Asboville which was followed by the

gritty Soldier Boy.

The day was a success as the gifted and talented students were taken through a series of strategies that help in generating ideas when writing imaginatively. The key strategy that most students took away from the workshop was that writing should be from students’ experiences and should be kept simple and spare.

The Year 10’s were given handy hints on how to tackle one of the key GCSE requirements; writing to describe. Here Danny Rhodes donned two hats; Danny the teacher (he is a GCSE and A level

English examiner) and Danny the author. The students were taught how to step outside their comfort zone if they want to tick the right boxes and impress the examiner.

One student summed up the day when he said that they had been given, practical and no nonsense information on kick starting your writing. Very enjoyable too.

Lorence Manzini (Gifted & Talented Co-ordinator in English)

ys properly. You can continue to ignore it if you wish, but thats just how things are.