Writing the Game | Arvon

Writing the Game

Resource / Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry / 12-14, 14-16

Arvon has been offering residential creative writing courses for schools, groups and individuals, led by professional authors, at our three rural writing houses since 1968. 

Many of our projects cater specifically to the needs of particular partners or audiences – we’re pleased to be able to share the learning from this work in our free resource packs. These contain useful guidance, exercises and writing prompts that can be used in school, a youth group, at home or in any other context working with young people. 

Writing the Game Learning Resource 

Football as a gateway into the imagination – a learning resource to develop creative writing projects with young people 

[Free PDF download here – no login required]

Writing the Game channels young people’s love of football to engage them with writing and learning. Since 2009 the project has benefited over 150 young people from disadvantaged areas in London, Plymouth and South Yorkshire, in partnership with Barnsley, Crystal Palace, Leyton Orient and Plymouth Argyle Football Clubs.

Using football as source material and inspiration, the project uses young people’s own interests and passions to inspire their writing, introducing new ways to engage with literature and journalism, and giving them the chance to attend their local football ground to be sports reporters for the day. 

We are delighted to present the Writing the Game Learning Resource, a new free publication which presents activities and exercises from this project for anyone to use with groups of young people. Designed to be suitable for schools, sports clubs or youth groups, the resource contains guidance on how to run every element of a Writing the Game course, and each exercise can also be adapted and used as a standalone activity. 

Suggested standalone exercises to print for home learning: 

  • Page 17, Exercises 4 and 5 – ‘Match Fit: Football makes me feel like…’ and ‘Dressing room banter – found poetry’. 
  • Pages 20-21 Exercises 9 and 10: ‘Striker, Goalie, Ref: Concentrating language’ and ‘Keepy Uppies: Kennings and word play’. 

To find out more about the Writing the Game project including evaluation reports and a short film, visit the case study page: Writing the Game. Printed copies will be available once our office reopens later this year. 

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