Over the past two days we had the privilege of attending the 2023 Writers Retreat. This was an amazing and memorable experience that we are both extremely grateful to have been a part of as we learnt lots and had had heaps of fun.

On Wednesday morning we departed school for the King's High School Lodge which they kindly allowed us to stay at. When we arrived we were instantly taken aback by the beautiful scenery of Warrington Bay. Once we had unpacked and set up we began to expand on our various writing skills. We started by looking at an Ian Sharp poem, taking inspiration from the metaphorical text, we then wrote our own Metaphor Poem.

Our second workshop focused on found poetry - a form of poetry that entails circling words from a text to make a new poem. The weather looked promising so we put on lots of layers and set out for an adventure around the bay. We saw so many eye-catching scenes! From baby crabs to soaring seagulls, we had lots to include in our next workshop.

The next stories we wrote focused on using sensory descriptions to enhance our literary writing about the features we saw around Warrington.

We enjoyed some free time after our workshops laughing, chatting, and playing games with some of the other girls. When dinner was announced, we bounced down the stairs, ready to enjoy the dinner Mrs Seward kindly prepared for us. It was burgers and chips, a classic camp meal, but it was definitely one of the most scrumptious camp meals we’ve ever had!

Our final workshop for the day was creating a dystopian world inspired by the opening chapter of The Hunger Games by Susan Collins. We ate some delicious ice cream whilst our special guest Ms Joyce arrived to discuss our favourite books with us. We each brought “a book we cannot live without” then sat in a circle taking turns describing what makes us like it so much. Next came two rounds of Spotlight, which sadly neither of us won.

By the time we finished, it was quite late so we headed inside to get ready for bed. We got informed that we could sleep in, the best news you can hear on camp. Being at camp, sleep wasn’t many campers' priority but we all got plenty, ready for the next day.

A fulfilling breakfast meant we were ready for our next workshop- finishing off chapter 1 of our creative writing piece. To ensure the big day ahead was a breeze, we packed up our gear early and showed off our vacuuming skills. A beach walk awaited us, so we put our bags into the van, had a quick bite to eat, and layered on our jackets ready to walk to Warrington Beach. When there, we completed our final workshop, Japanese Haiku's inspired by the nature around us.

A considerable amount of home baking was eaten on the van home, which in hindsight probably wasn’t the best idea. We arrived home, safe and sound, full of memories (and brownies!), from the 2023 Writers Camp.