Our Library has a well-established Creative Writing Club for students in Key Stage 3. Students write short stories or poetry at lunchtime, or work on projects over a longer period of time such as the Mother Tongue, Other Tongue poetry competition.

Mother Tongue, Other Tongue, which was run by the North East Festival of Languages, is a celebration of young people’s poetic writing. It reflects different languages they speak either at home, (Mother Tongue) or are learning, (Other Tongue). To enter the competition, students wrote poems in Pashto (Afghanistan), Shona (Zimbabwe, Zambia and Kenya), French, Japanese and Latin, with themes addressing aspirations, bullying, identity, culture, family and friendship. One student chose to write a poem based on her recollection of a traditional Zimbabwean childrens’ rhyme