First Draft

Today, we looked at the first draft of our anthology and it made me cry.

Over the last six months, Kate has been collecting in the work produced each week. She calls it 'Kate's Magic Writing Up Service' and she will turn scraps of paper into 'proper-looking' poems. As such, we find it is rather easy to get an anthology together, with Kate and the students selecting their best pieces and arranging them in an order that has style and fluidity.

Today, Kate proposed that our anthology might be called Wings. This is because we have some lovely poems in which wings feature, including a poem about a young boy's dream of being a superhero. We also hope this will lend itself to a brilliant cover design, and we are trying to recruit one of our art students to design it!

There is a mixure of poetry and prose throughout our first draft; some are funny and some are heart-wrenching; some are from the heart and some are pure fantasy. We try and put in at least two poems from every student, and with all the groups we have, this means we get a packed, varied collection.

Even though I have read many of these pieces of poetry and prose before, or have heard early versions read out during our First Story classes, I was touched when reading them all together. There is something special about knowing who has written a poem, and it is humbling when they share this little piece of themselves with you.

As we wind down towards the end of the year, First Story will take a slighly different appearance in our school. There will be a lot of administration for me to deal with, especially in preparation for our anthology launch, and students will become increasingly preoccupied with their examinations. However, this is a great opportunity for Kate to do some innovative things with students in other areas of the school!