About Liz
About Liz | Educational | Residencies | CV | Podcast | Event Poster
Educational Work
Liz, a former teacher of English and Learning Support, has delivered creative writing and language workshops for 20 years. She has held residencies in many schools across Scotland and delivered schools’ workshops as far afield as Beijing.
She is a setter for the Advanced Higher Scottish & English Language paper for SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority).
Liz Niven regularly holds residencies, short and longer term, across Scotland.
These have been hosted by the Scottish Poetry Library, Scottish Book Trust and the Poetry Society of London as well as individual Education, Arts teams and City Councils, Scottish National Gallery, Historic Scotland. She has facilitated creative writing for pupils and staff through CPD in Scottish Authorities.
School quotes: Education Residencies
‘It was a unique and unforgettable experience for me – and I’m sure for all the pupils too. Liz was able to tap into the well of hidden creativity and release the stream of words in a sensitive, yet disciplined way’. Sheila Whyte: 5th year class teacher
‘A unique combination of stimulation and sensitivity established rapport very quickly with pupils who responded willingly, many revealing real depth of feeling’. Kay Boyle: 4th year credit classteacher
‘The teachers found Liz’s approach inspirational and some reported that they felt they knew their pupils better as a result of these sessions’. Sara Marsh, School Librarian
One member of staff commented that Liz’s sessions had changed their perception of teaching poetry, and clearly Liz changed the perceptions of some of the pupils, too! Cathrin Howells, Literature in Learning
ASLS
Her poetry and language work is included in many Scottish schools’ curriculum. The poem below is published in ‘Stravaigin’ and Teacher Notes for Textual analysis of this poem for Higher English: Intermediate 2 are available from the Association of Scottish Literary Studies www.asls.org
Tourists at Auschwitz
We'd been telt
nae birds wid sing.
True it wis bit tall trees
shrooded brick wark camps.
Row upon row, they stretcht,
far as the greetin een cuid see.
Hidden fae view,
gas chaumers lay buriet,
unner foondations crummlt,
as butcher builders fleed.
A million an a hauf stanes pave
memorials in monie tungs.
A brick fir ilka deid sowel.
Vyces are low, few picters taen.
Nearhaun,a watter-fillt hollow,
algae covert, still hauds human ash.
A haun-wringin guide tells us mair.
Wirds hing heavy.
Intae sic silence,
a green puddock lowps a perfit bow,
oan the staignant loch.
Liz has worked with Edinburgh schools as part of the PPP initiative to build new schools. Poetry workshops were held in Gracemount and Craigmount High schools. Edinburgh. The completed installations were opened by Patricia Ferguson, then Minister for Culture and Sport. Pupils created new writing for the fabric of their new PPP school buildings. Picture: Gracemount High School plaque in Assembly Hall.
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