Workshops
Rachel’s current projects include:
All Write: Pupils, taught by Rachel, interview author Sherry Ashworth
Portico Prize for Young Writers: judging the non-fiction entries and working with the entrants to improve their writing.
Manchester Children’s Book Festival: teaching primary school pupils to report on events and to produce all website content on activities as they happen. The pupils will interview Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and authors including Frank Cottrell Boyce, Liz Kessler and Paul Magrs.
To find out more about the Young Reporters click here
For news reports on the Manchester Children’s Festival Young Reporters follow these links:
Rachel has also delivered workshops for:
- Manchester International Festival
- Manchester Metropolitan University Writing School
- Aim Higher
- Excellence In Cities
- Higher Futures For You (HF4U)
- Association for Creative Writing and English
- Gifted and Talented
- Tameside’s Shining Stars
- CUBE (Centre for the Urban and Built Environment)
- Creative Partnerships
-
Workshop: Creating a splash
- Continuing Professional Development
- INSET training
Rachel works with people of all ages.
She can deliver tailor-made workshops, using journalism and creative writing and workshops can be adapted to the demands of the national curriculum, as appropriate. They are developed to help pupils perform better in the workplace and wider society with a focus on teamwork, problem-solving, questioning and debating – and every session ends with a celebration of the work.
Rachel can deliver workshops for your pupils on any journalistic subject or any creative writing genre.
During a bespoke workshop at your schools, pupils could:
- consider where news comes from and how their hometown is reported on
- learn key newspaper language and how to write an exciting news story
- practise the art of writing good headlines – and be amused by some bad ones
- learn how facts can be used persuasively or misused
- understand the key elements of newspaper design, from standfirsts to mastheads
- learn the difference between a news story and a feature
- understand more about editing
- learn to write a press release
- learning interview skills
Using examples of her own work, Rachel has held workshops for GCSE level and A Level students on subjects including journalistic writing skills, finding the story, interviewing, reviewing, journalistic style and language, news reporting, feature writing and how to know your audience.
Rachel encourages creativity, using journalistic style, and her workshops can be adapted to work with the demands of National Curriculum.
She can discuss her career as well as give advice on the different routes into journalism. She is able to advise on how to properly target letters and CVs to editors and how to respond to real job advertisements.
With 20 years journalism experience, Rachel’s work has been published in a variety of national, regional and local newspapers, national magazines and websites.
She has worked as a reporter, a feature writer, a news editor, a features editor, a travel writer, a sub-editor and a page designer.
Her workshops for pupils and teachers have been described as “fantastic” and students say they have been inspired to consider a career in journalism and go on to university.