We were lucky enough to secure funding, once again, from the School Library Improvement Fund (SLIF) to run this exciting transition project in partnership with Abertay University.

S1 pupils from Harris Academy are being asked to reflect on their experience of transition from Primary to Secondary school.  Over the course of the project they will produce writing and artwork which will be used to inform the creation of a generic comic on the theme of transition.

Professional comic artists and writers will use the work of the pupils as a brief to help in the production of a comic which will be distributed to all of our schools.

So far we have enjoyed two workshops. The first was presented by Fiona Stirling, Abertay University, and the second by Jenny Lindsay, Writer and Poet.

Fiona spoke about internalising and externalising feelings e.g. I am feeling anxious vs. I have a problem that’s causing me some anxiety. She also explained the importance of narrative using an image of an elephant with its trunk around the handle of a pram. Pupils had three minutes to write a short story about the picture…and there were some wonderfully creative results.  In this way Fiona was able to demonstrate, even if we all look at the same thing, our interpretations and perspectives are unique.  The final activity involved each group being assigned an emotion which they had to draw! This was quite tricky but the young people came up with some fantastic ideas and images.

Jenny’s focus was on THEN and NOW and challenged pupils to construct a ten sentence story about their transition from P7 to S1. Everyone had to draw round their hands and on each finger write adjectives or statements describing past and present feelings/thoughts.  Jenny scaffolded the workshop beautifully, giving instruction on what was required for each of the ‘fingers’ and providing a framework to insert the adjectives and statements to create the ten sentences.  The workshop was fast paced, fun, productive and delivered with panache!

Next week pupils will be visiting the Dundee Comics Creative Space (DCCS) for a two hour comics workshop. Check in again to see how they get on:-)

Thanks to Steve Soave, 81films for all of the wonderful photographs.