Can I have a word? is a web-based initiative from the Barbican designed to help primary teachers stimulate pupils’ creative writing skills. The site draws on one of the Barbican’s most successful education projects, during which, over the last three years, children from 10 schools in Tower Hamlets and neighbouring boroughs have worked with poets and writers in a series of exhilarating workshops to explore new ways of using language creatively. The website features new poems by a host of writers, including Jackie Kay, Mathew Sweeney, Beverly Naidoo and Michael Rosen, as well as downloadable classroom projections, audio poems, short videos and other resources in four themed projects: The Odyssey, Changing Voices - exploring the impact of apartheid in South Africa, The Elements and The Human Body.

www.canihaveaword.org.uk

Tessa Bartley