Poet Laureate heading to Budleigh Salterton

Students get free session with Simon Armitage

Hundreds of students and schoolchildren from across Devon will benefit from Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival’s Spring Weekend.
 
Poet Laureate Simon Armitage is among the authors heading to Budleigh this week, when around 250 students from Exeter College; Exmouth Community College; Sidmouth College, The Kings School, Ottery St Mary; Queen Elizabeth’s School, Crediton; Colyton Grammar School, The Maynard School, Exeter School and St Peter’s Exeter will get to hear him.
 
David Marston, who is a member of the festival’s education team, said: “This is an exciting event which we are providing free to students as part of our education and outreach work. They will have the opportunity to experience and engage with a brilliant writer who is also on the GCSE and A Level Literature syllabus.
 
“Our aims are to inspire children and help them to grow a love of books and reading which will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Good literacy and wellbeing go hand in hand. It is our ambition to make sure children have the best possible access to great books and writing.”
 
Helen Millman Jones, lead practitioner (English) at Exmouth Community College, said: “A Level English Language and English Literature students from Exmouth Community College are incredibly excited about their forthcoming visit to hear Simon Armitage read from his latest collection.
 
“Having studied his work as part of the GCSE and having heard his poetry shared widely in the media, the students are thrilled to be able to experience his talents first hand. Staff who are attending are very much looking forward to getting to know more of his recent work.  We are very grateful to Budleigh Literary Festival for putting on such an amazing event for local schools.”
 
Jess Chatfield from The Kings School, Ottery St Mary, said: “We are thrilled that Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival has organised this exciting opportunity for our A Level English students to hear Simon Armitage read and talk about his work.  To hear, first hand, how writers use poetry to speak to young people about serious world issues, is an incredibly enriching experience that reaches far beyond the classroom.”
 
Other outreach activities include a visit by Winnie the Witch illustrator Korky Paul to Brixington Primary School in Exmouth and St Peter’s Primary in Budleigh Salterton, and workshops with Adventure Mice creators Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre in local primary schools. More workshops with Carnegie Award winning writer Katya Balen are lined up for year 6 pupils from local primary schools in the early summer.

Radio Exe is among the festival's sponsors, and managing director Paul Nero will be hosting a session on Saturday with former head of the international affairs think tank Chatham House, Sir Robin Niblett. His new book 'The New Cold War' examines how tensions between China and the US will shape the future.

Other authors appearing this weekend include BBC broadcaster Clive Myrie, which has already sold out; Poet Laureate Simon Armitage; popular mathematician Professor Marcus du Sautoy; and investigative journalists Sam Peters and Hannah Barnes.