Cliff McNish - AIM High Writing

Cliff McNish

AIM High Writing

Summary

Age range - KS1 - KS5
Books KS2 - KS3
DBS Checked Yes

Booking
Contact
+44 (0)1535 656015
aimhigh@caboodlebooks.co.uk

Cliff is a multiple-award winning and Carnegie-nominated writer whose fantasy novels, ghost stories and animal tales have been translated into 26 languages worldwide.

About Cliff

Armed with twenty years of teaching experience across all key stages, Cliff loves bringing his passion for writing to inspire children.  

Cliff’s fantasy Doomspell trilogy was a best-seller internationally, and his ghost novel Breathe was voted in May 2013 by The Schools Network of British Librarians as one of the top children’s novels of all time.

Educationally, he’s trained teachers and taught MA creative writing students, but his central passion when he’s not writing his own fiction is spending time with children of all key stages. He’s been a Patron of Reading many times, and his 5 Steps to Creating a Story was used in a master’s thesis to explore children’s writing styles.

Librarians and teachers always report enthusiastic responses to his visits, but just as importantly to Cliff those visits leave students with lasting skills improvements.

Cliff’s AIM High Writing Days

Years 3-4

Create my own special puppy! and Construct my own Witch!

This day offers enormous fun for younger children while at the same time sharpening skills key to the core curriculum. Developing an appreciation of language skills, both written and oral, is essential to this, and through these workshops students learn how to create their own characters and stories in a structured way that extend their vocabularies, descriptive skills and grasp of theme and setting. They also all have a chance to read/present their own work, as well as peer review each other in a constructive way they can all enjoy.

Initially Cliff talks about the rescue dogs he has worked with. This is followed by a session where children draw and create their very own special puppy with its unique personality, likes/dislikes, tastes and friendships. All students are given a chance to share, read out their work and talk about their puppy.

In part 2, Cliff talks about his fantasy novel The Doomspell, a starting point to open up all the cliches about witches in story books. This is followed by a writing challenge where children create their own much more original one, which they share with each other.

Year 5 and 6

Constructing a story, creating great characters and a ghost tale.

This day offers older key stage 2 students all the same core curriculum focus as the Year 3-4 programme, but with a much sharper emphasis on developing higher standards of narrative structure. Through examples from a wide heritage of tales, they are encouraged to stretch their settings, plot and characterisation skills, with each student having ample opportunity to discuss their ideas, read/perform their written work and peer review writing done on the day.

The day begins with a session where Cliff talks about his own books and gets students to talk about the problems they have when writing fiction. So many struggle to structure and complete their stories. Cliff then offers a powerful 5 step method any student can use to craft compelling stories from start to finish.

This is built upon by exploring what makes for memorable characters readers will truly root for or against – heroes, villains and everything in between.

Finally, elements are brought together and the group explores how to build tension through the example of a ghost story. As part of this the students write and share their own tale.

Year 5 and 6 (alternative day)

Creating an original fantasy story.

 Cliff’s speciality is fantasy writing, and the day begins with him discussing his best-selling fantasy The Doomspell.

The group moves to a series of class participative and written exercises where students experience the essence of fantasy writing. Participants construct their own story, creating a gateway to take them to a new world of their own devising. To make this world feel real, the group practises all the elements that make fantasy writing authentic: the use of telling details; techniques for describing unusual creatures; and the element of the quest.

This day is based on 20 years of teaching these themes at primary and secondary schools, and is enormously satisfying for students who love their fantasy. 

Secondary Schools  - Years 7 and 8

By this stage, the core curriculum requires that students are fully immersed in the rich tradition and variety of our literary heritage to help them grasp what makes characters and plot work across all story types.

The core story-developing workshops are the same as for Year 5/6 above but with examples more varied and the challenges set more stretching. 

In addition, for year 7-8 and year 9-10 students, however, Cliff also offers the following:

 The Four Great Stories

Cliff originally wrote this one-day workshop with creative writing MA students at Winchester University in mind. Over time he has realised that younger students love it as well.

During this day, the group explores the four themes readers respond to most deeply in fiction – The Dream Come True, Overcoming the Monster, The Consequences of Loss and Character Transformation – and how we can use them to create powerful stories of our own.

Sounds dry, but it actually works fantastically well because students are encouraged to link the themes to their own lives.

No written story is produced at the end of the 4 stories workshop, but students will have explored in detail not just the key themes at the heart of all storytelling but why these archetypes, so embedded in our own lives, are the central ones in all literature.

Cliff’s Literacy Workshop

All Cliff’s AIM HIGH days can be adapted for students who are reluctant learners. With many years behind him of working with reluctant pupils or those with special educational needs, Cliff is very experienced in being in front of students who do not always want to learn.

To help bring learning to life for them, Cliff uses more visual examples and simplifies the tasks and also the outcomes expected a little from his standard workshops while not losing the core values they bring. In this AIM HIGH day, reluctant students (who so often, as we know, just lack the confidence to express themselves) are offered a stronger voice in choosing their subject matter. They are also given ample opportunity to write and share ideas rather than cramming too many tasks into the day that might overwhelm them.

The aim is for them to have created something distinctive and individual by day’s end that boosts confidence in their own gifts significantly.

A Selection of Cliff’s Books

'Gripping, racy, children have been fighting to borrow it.' The Guardian

'By turns funny and touching ... a must for all dog lovers.' BookTrust

'Breathe is a brilliantly inventive ghost story, compellingly written.' Booktrust

Bookings
To book Cliff please contact us now at aimhigh@caboodlebooks.co.uk