London Connect 2023

120 students  – Year 7 to Year 12 – from eight London schools took part in our Connect event at the University of Greenwich in June 2023.

Connect events are included in our offer for Young Writers Programme cohorts. As region-specific provision, these events encourage participants to connect with each other as a community of young writers, as well as strengthening connections to local universities and cultural institutions where events take place. The 2023 London event took place on 30 June at the University of Greenwich.

At this year’s popular London event, a welcome address was given by Dr John Morton, Associate Professor of English Literature, and Dr Rosumand Davies, Senior Lecturer from the School of Stage and Screen, before undergraduate Student Ambassadors guided participants to creative writing workshops taking place in seminar rooms around the historic campus.

Thanks for a great day. The students did such good work, and were so brave and confident. I’m so happy we were able to host the event. I hope we’re able to do a similar event next year.

Dr John Morton, University of Greenwich

Students from the following schools took part: Aylward Academy (Enfield), George Green’s School (Tower Hamlets), Hampstead School (Camden), Heartlands High School (Haringey), St Paul’s Way (Tower Hamlets), Holland Park (Kensington & Chelsea), Chelsea Academy (Kensington & Chelsea) and Skinners Academy (Hackney).

Six First Story Writers – Adam Kammerling, Cecilia Knapp Rachel Seiffert Francesca Beard Xanthi Barker  Theresa Lola were joined by screenwriters Simon Booker and Jonny Wright to lead sessions throughout the day.

Lunch and further campus tours were followed by a showcase of participants’ work, emceed by Cecilia Knapp.

Our workshops were hugely enjoyable. The chat-style interviews were great fun and Simon gave students an insight into careers in screenwriting. Cecilia’s poetry workshop also yielded some impressive work from the students.

Aaron Waterhouse, Teacher at Holland Park School

[Students] were very focused and engaged. They enjoyed the campus and had questions about university. They enjoyed the variety of writers, workshops styles, techniques and wrote some beautiful, powerful work.

Cecilia Knapp, Writer

Participant feedback

I loved the new opportunities and techniques that the event has opened my writing to.

I like how we got to have our own attempt at writing poems and shared our work with others.

I liked it because we got to meet authors and see what their job is like.

[I liked] the location. The kindness of our writers.

[I enjoyed] learning with other young writers of different ages, ethnicities, race, and beliefs.

It encouraged me to keep writing poetry. I shared my ideas with lots of people.

I liked how I was able to work and interact with various skilled writers. It helped me understand and refine my skills in different areas of creative writing like screen writing and poetry.

It allows you to meet new people and find out more about how people make a living out of writing. I liked working with different writers and styles of work, learning how to develop your own work through it.

I liked that we got to talk to professional writers and get advice and tips from them, because it really gave me a boost of confidence and motivation.