The Young Authors’ mentorship camp begins

Jordan Hill Creative Writing & Reading Workshop, in collaboration with Corona Schools’ Trust Council offers children the opportunity to become better writers and published authors at the Young Authors’ Mentorship Camp 2018 which started with an assessment for children aged 5 – 12 at the first camp site, Corona School Ikoyi.

In an interview with Pulse, on the assessment, Adeola Eze, Educational Director, Jordan Hill CWRW says "The Writing Level Assessment is not a prerequisite for admission into the YAMC 2018, but rather a requirement to place each child’s working level in writing and develop individual learning plans suitable to each child’s writing needs for an effective holiday learning experience.”

Jordan Hill CWRW, running its eighth annual long-term holiday writing camp, had recently, at a grand event that took place on May 29th, 2018, and which had in attendance notable personalities like Henry Agbebire (MD/CEO Greenfield Consult – The Speak & Write Well Centre), Mrs. Adeyoyin Adesina (CEO, Corona Schools’ Trust Council), Mrs. Omolara Akinyemi (Deputy Director, Ministry of Education), Mr. Bayode Treasures-Olawunmi, Mr. Jide Benson, Mr. Desmond Majekodunmi (Director, Lufasi Nature Park) and Ms. Olubusola Ogundipe (Segment Manager, Education, Access Bank Plc), launched five books written by children thereby making 10-year old Oluwademilade Fagbayi, 10-year- old Onyinye Udechukwu, 8- year-old Oluwadarasimi Fagbayi, 6-year-old Bolaoluwa Nerat Asaolu and 5-year-old Folafemi Olu-Adesina all join the global rank of authors, under the Jordan Hill Butterfly Series imprint for young authors.

This year’s camp programme, in collaboration with Corona Schools’ Trust Council aims to inspire, motivate and mentor children to become better writers, write and complete their own books, and thereafter get the books published if selected as an award entry. This is because Jordan Hill holds the belief that when children are celebrated as young authors and young achievers, after their first book is published, they will be motivated to engage in more writing activities which will ensure their writing gets better and they spend more time on activities that add value. “Consequently, they will grow up to be effective communicators in the work place and marketplace which most young adults are not in this generation as the children will receive coaching and mentorship from seasoned English instructors and published authors to ensure they are effective in their writing.” Mrs. Eze adds.

This is quite obvious as recently Jordan Hill Butterfly Series published authors and siblings, Oluwademilade Fagbayi and Oluwadarasimi Fagbayi have been signed up for the YAMC 2018. “I want my writing to get better as I go to secondary school and I also want to write my second book” says Oluwademilade Fagbayi, the older of the duo.

On Corona School collaborating with Jordan Hill on this project, Mrs. Chinyere Anyanwu, Sectional Head, Corona School Victoria Island, has this to say “We believe there’s a need to have our pupils’ writing skills enhanced to ensure they are poised to excel in life. That is the reason we have the Jordan Hill Young Authors’ Club running in our schools and we are quite delighted to collaborate with Jordan Hill on the YAMC 2018 because through this we believe would be able to reach more children to reinforce the learning on Writing done in schools and ultimately nurture better writers in our society.”

On future plans, Jordan Hill purposes to work with more schools in nurturing and honing children’s writing skills and also training teachers to be effective in teaching Creative Writing. “A lot of teachers need to start teaching Creative Writing with a Creative Mindset” emphasizes Mr. Kennedy Eze, Managing Director at Jordan Hill CWRW. “Teachers need to broaden their horizons in the teaching of Writing to be able to reach the children and ensure effective learning time with them. That was why as we prepared for the YAMC 2018, we engaged our teaching team in a one-week rigorous re-training session to equip them with the skills in teaching writing and delivering the content of the camp programme excellently. It is undeniably important that our work team understands the need for children to be better writers in delivering our nation from the education decline seen in recent times, while having their own skills honed in teaching the 21st century learners.”

Also, with funding, they aim to make the programme reach more children. Presently, the YAMC 2018 is billed to run in four schools in Lagos, the Corona School Ikoyi being the first from Monday 23rd July – Friday 3rd August, 2018 for children on the island in the Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Oniru and Lekki Phase One axis. The next camp site would be Corona School Gbagada (Monday 6th – Friday 17th August, 2018) aimed for children on the mainland and then the last session will be run in two schools simultaneously; Corona School Lekki and The Pottersland School Lekki (Monday 20th – Friday 31st August, 2018) to give children in the Ikate, Agungi, Chevron, Victoria Garden City (VGC), Ajah, Awoyaya equal opportunity to participate in the writing programme. “People had expressed interest in having their children participate in the writing programme in times past, but because of the logistics of the distance involved, they were unable to register their children. Running it in four schools at different locations across Lagos is our way of satisfying our clients and reaching more children.”

On the steps to registering their children or wards, Jordan Hill advises parents to visit their pages below:

Website: www.jordanhill.org

Instagram: @jordanhill.ed

E-mail: info@jordanhill.org

“It’s high time we all joined hands together in Nigeria to effect a better educational system in our nation. We need to start taking deliberate and intentional steps to right the ills of our society. The YAMC 2018 is our own way at Jordan Hill of creating the change we desire in Nigeria and growing a new generation of writers.” Mrs. Eze concludes.

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