Arctic Convoys Project

How do you persuade a group of lively young Scouts (mostly aged 11 and 12), who have never done, nor had the slightest inclination to do, any creative writing, to write poems and stories about the WWII Arctic Convoys? That was my challenge on this project - or one of them! The project began with an email from Ruth Butler, Heritage Education Officer at the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, asking me if I could deliver the final element of a Heritage Lottery Fund project to get young people to respond creatively to oral history interviews and photos of Wiltshire veterans of the WWII Arctic Convoys. There was a delivery deadline just a couple of months ahead, and at that stage, a group of young participants had yet to be found, but all that simply ramped up the thing I thrive on - a challenge. Find out how this brilliant opportunity took shape in the link to my blog about it on the left - and in the link to Ruth's excellent summary of the work we did. That also includes examples of some of the Scouts' work, and two of the fabulous poems written by students at St Laurence School in Bradford on Avon, who also joined me on this project, following our work together in 2016 on the Iron Duke project. Massive thanks to everyone involved!