The Project

The Original Inklings
The Inklings were an informal group of academics at Oxford University during the 1940's & 50's. The Inklings would gather on a weekly basis to share their writing and openly (often harshly) criticise it. They would discuss content, style, effect and the overall feel of the writing. Probably the most notable members of the Inklings were Professors JRR Tolkien & CS Lewis. The Inklings created a mutually supportive writing community which helped to develop some very influential texts (where would the fantasy genre be without The Lord of The Rings?).

21st Century Inklings
This project takes its inspiration from the original Inklings and aims to create a mutually supportive writers community. However this is a virtual community allowing writers from all over to write and criticise each other's work.

INKLINGS is: a RAYLEIGH PRIMARY SCHOOL WRITING INITIATIVE
an ESSEX INCLUSION PROJECT
& has been supported by GAMES WORKSHOP UK

What the INKLINGS project can offer your school?
Inklings can offer your school virtually unlimited publishing space for your young writers, for no cost.Yes folks that's FREE OF CHARGE. We have specifically designed the site with ease of use in mind. It is straight forward for authors to publish writing and criticise others. it is just as easy for a teacher to administer his or her community. You do not require publishing skills or specialist software.

You may choose how to use the site; You decide who your targetted writers are going to be. You may wish to use the project for a specific group such as SEN, G&T, booster groups, an extra curricular club, or if you feeling really brave whole classes or year groups. You have your own area of the site where your writers' work is published and you may state who your school is and how you are using the site.

You have the facility to make teacher comments, if you wish, about each piece. You can approve stories and comments. You can set homework tasks and decide which stories to feature on your Community page.

In short this project is an opportunity too good to miss.

Where this project has come from
The Inklings Project started in 2004 as a way of engaging More Able Boys; encouraging them to explore writing in various forms and enabling them to discuss their work in a mutually supportive way. The first group of writers involved were extremely keen and enjoyed the game play elements and the Writer's Forums. They found it a rewarding and useful experience. They were able to explore storytelling and writing techniques. However, the writers had no way of easily sharing their work with others and the need for a publishing vehicle became evident.

Games Workshop, the manufacturers of WARHAMMER, expressed an interest in the project and together we have explored ways of developing it so it can reach a wider audience. The project now works with writers in local secondary schools of both genders, improving links between schools and promoting writing for enjoyment.

This highly colourful and tactile approach has already started to have an impact on the writers involved. They are very keen to write after a session. They organise themselves well and unlike many homework tasks, they often tackle Inklings writing as soon as possible. Several writers work in pairs outside school to support their writing, discuss ideas and consider plotlines. They are becoming aware of good writing practise, are quite critical of their own work and are able to make quality judgments about their own and other's writing. They are quite happy to redraft work looking for areas of improvement and trying to get a better understanding as to how a text works.
The writers have a forum in which they can discuss any aspect of their writing. My role has become more guide than teacher as they can often clarify their learning with minimal input from me. It is already clear that this creative approach to the whole writing process has a significant affect on those involved. They can often be found talking about the content of their stories and how they will improve them or where they will take them next. It will be interesting to see how their writing develops as the project is only in the opening stages. We aim to cover several other genres using a similar approach, including sci-fi and thriller/horror.

Tim Eagling
I am a teacher at Rayleigh Primary School in Essex. I teach Year Six and am the Head of English. My particular interest is in promoting writing for enjoyment and the development of the writing process, from ideas to publication. I have been involved in the Games Workshop hobby for 20 years. In the last few years this involvement has become more widespread: I have won awards for participation games and rules at Gamesday, had articles published in White Dwarf magazine and I have contributed to the latest edition of Warhammer 40000 and the Games Workshop guide to setting up school clubs, I run a number of hobby related websites receiving mail from gamers from all over the world. At school I run a very popular Warhammer club and my club members have gone on to be keen players in clubs at a variety of secondary schools. For many years I have believed that the hobby provides a variety of links to the educational world and I have been trying to find ways of tying them together. The Inklings project is the culmination of this quest.