Last week a group of students walked the Laurie Lee Wildlife Way as part of a poetry-based creative writing trip, led by Mr Fullerton. Inspired by the picturesque views of the valleys, hills, and woods, the students crafted their own ecopoetry and engaged with the Slad poet's own verse. The adventurous five-mile walk was particularly challenging in the heat and students demonstrated great perseverance and camaraderie.

Mr Fullerton reports: “As a group we walked sections of the trail, before regularly stopping (in shade!) to spend some time writing individually. We were fortunate enough to encounter a team from the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust working on Swift's Hill to monitor the plant diversity of the protected limestone grassland site. Students enjoyed a short, but highly informative talk about the importance of the site for biodiversity and various species only found there. Before the trip, students had participated in two 'workshop' lunchtime sessions, first learning about ecopoetry itself, and then developing various writing techniques. We were hugely impressed by the writing shared with the group by students during the trip and look forward to reading their refined compositions that will be put together into an anthology, which will be shared with the whole school community to celebrate their achievements.”