Community Voices is a new series of posts written by the organisations we support. We hope to provide a platform for local charities to share their expertise and offer their unique insight into the opportunities available to and challenges faced by Buckinghamshire residents.

When the global pandemic broke out just six months into a three-year programme, Creative Translation in the Classroom adapted.

Since March 2020, our lives have often been restricted: our movements curtailed; our social activities reduced; our conversations diverted through screens. In schools, navigating corridors and canteens has been strictly controlled. Pupils have been confined to their seats with little chance for group work. In contrast, the Creative Translation in the Classroom (CTiC) project run by the Stephen Spender Trust prioritises collaboration, flexibility, and mobility. Though it was conceived long before phrases like “social distancing” or “super-spreader” entered our collective vocabulary, the programme provides a perfect antidote to the stasis that many of us have experienced.

CTiC builds on the Stephen Spender Trust’s decade of educational work. Over three years, the project pairs translators and teachers to embed creative translation into schools across the region. CTiC provides teacher training, workshops, and resources to support and inspire multilingual communities, thereby valuing the skill of students with English as an Additional Language (EAL) and addressing the decline in modern language learning in schools. After a year of watching suited men giving pandemic updates from TV podiums, we recognise the importance of maintaining a programme that foregrounds young people’s voices.

Navigating Disruption Throughout the Seasons

As CTiC’s second year began, children were back in school, and life seemed to be returning to normal. Whilst we were hopeful that our translators would deliver in-person workshops in spring, we ran virtual training and held the launch event online — with all attendees receiving brownies by post. The continual rise and fall of Covid cases meant that this blended approach continued throughout the year, with teachers delivering the seasonal activity, spring courses, and summer poetry workshops through videos and other materials that our team of translators produced.

As the weather got colder, the seasonal activity allowed some pupils to journey to the warmer climes of the Francophone Caribbean to sing in the Yuletide, and to Mexico to get a flavour of Christmas cooking there. In spring, pupils worked across different text types including song: one group learnt the most famous nursery rhyme in South Asia — and translated it from Urdu! Another class rapped in French. Meanwhile there were translations of graphic novels, comics, and picture books. In the summer term, all pupils enjoyed a poetry translation workshop to encourage them to enter the Stephen Spender Prize. Some of these sessions were even delivered by translators in person, at last! Our judges are looking forward to reading the hundreds of prize entries flooding in from schools across the region.

Next Year

The pandemic has allowed SST to develop a blended approach and to bring creative translation to schools whether they’re open or not. This has led to a closer collaboration between translators and teachers, with teachers assuming a greater role in delivering activities. We’ve also developed a fully ‘remote’ strand to our programme, with a series of webinars for teachers. This development has been so well received that a group of teachers have joined with SST to set up a regional network for creative translation in schools, which will meet regularly from autumn 2021.
If you would like to participate in any of our programmes, please contact our Director Charlotte Ryland: [email protected] . Visit our website to find out more: www.stephen-spender.org

By Stacie Allan, Education Coordinator, Stephen Spender Trust

Community Voices is a new series of posts written by the organisations we support. We hope to provide a platform for local charities to share their expertise and offer their unique insight into the opportunities available to and challenges faced by Buckinghamshire residents.

If you are a current or past grantee and would like to be featured in the Community Voices series, please read our contribution guidance.