Glanworth National School hosted a special event on the last Tuesday of the school term, as the children of Third and Fourth Class launched a book, which catalogued a years worth of their creative writing compositions. ‘Now that’s What I Call…. Creative Writing 2014’ was the perfect way to round off the school year as the summer sun beckoned.

The pupils and their families were welcomed by principal Elizabeth Desmond, who thanked the parents for assisting and supporting their children during the past year, and allowing them to be part of teacher Mairéad Hayes’ doctoral research on the subject of creative writing and its effects on the self esteem of young children. Mairéad also expressed her gratitude to the parents for their encouragement and thanked the pupils very sincerely for their great attitude and hard work.

The culmination of their efforts was an endearing collection of fairy tales, letters, e-mails, plays, diaries, poetry and interactive stories. The pupils worked collaboratively and independently. Over the course of the year, Mairéad noted how the children grew in confidence and began to feel more comfortable sharing their work and ideas with each other.

The focus of the lessons was more on the process of expression than the product, the aim of which was to foster and develop a positive attitude towards literacy and to develop the children’s confidence in their writing and public speaking.

The children's progress was abundantly clear on the night of the launch as each child read a selection of his/her own work. One group acted out a play with great fervour, which was well received by all. The pinnacle of the night was the interactive stories which the children had composed. These were shown on the interactive whiteboard, and not only were the stories, illustrations and layout all of the children’s own work, they also provided the voices.

Once the presentation was concluded, everyone in attendance enjoyed a sociable evening which was kindly enhanced by refreshments, courtesy of the parents’ council. ‘Now That's What I Call… Creative Writing’ will be available in local libraries in the coming weeks. It will join last year's publication, ‘Green Schools Poetry’ on the shelf, which was also written by the children of this year’s Fourth Class.

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