I’m getting to know George Stephenson High School in Killingworth, and it’s a very joyful thing. Most of my interactions are with sixth form, but during Literature Week I got the chance to spend a bit of time with a group from Y8 having fun with creative writing. They are studying Romanticism and Frankenstein, so we decided to use Shelley’s Ozymandias as our springboard, and what a rich starting point it proved to be. In less than an hour, students had imagined a future with a resurgent Assyrian Empire, a monument to Rosa Parks in the shape of a bus that visitors can sit inside, statues honouring heroes from Kevin de Bruyne to animal rescuers and a future hated Prime Minister, a monument to Winston Churchill, whom the writer was afraid was beginning to be forgotten, a pair of legs and an inscription: ‘I am Donald Trump, rightful ruler … love and cherish me’, and finally a monument to the writer’s older self, successful through resilience, determination and being true to herself. I hope she keeps that piece and rereads it when she needs encouragement!
The school is blessed with a beautiful, well-stocked, well-used and well-staffed library space, and it was wonderful to spend time in it connecting with students, their passions and hopes and worries through reading and writing.