The Manchester Poetry Library are currently recruiting Schools Ambassadors to support the Mother Tongue Other Tongue Campus Creative Day on 8 July.
A limited number of roles are available for people wishing to work this day and priority will be given to candidates who have already expressed an interest in the project - either by volunteering as a judge on the project or by applying to one of the other roles connected to it.
Successful candidates will be employed as ambassadors/writing mentors, accompanying groups of 12-18 year old school and college pupils who are attending to celebrate their achievements as competition winners. Duties will include:
- Helping to set up the workshop spaces prior to schools arriving
- Assisting with registration and welcoming groups
- Acting as a group mentor, joining them for the creative workshops, assisting the workshop leader in ensuring the group is engaged and on task during the session.
- After the one hour sessions, all groups will convene for a plenary, where you will be expected to help celebrate the pupils' achievements and encourage those from your workshop group to share their work.
- Clearing down the workshop spaces at the end of the event, after schools have left
- To give a little background: Mother Tongue Other Tongue is a multi-lingual poetry competition for 8-18 year olds. Every year, around 40 schools submit entries; Mother Tongue invites pupils who have a heritage language other than English to share a poem from that language – either an original piece, or a poem shared or found; Other Tongue encourages pupils learning a language other than English to be creative in that language by writing a poem. Entries are judged on an accompanying commentary, written in English and explain their personal language story, their reason for writing or sharing the poem and saying something about it. On. 8 July, all schools who enter work for the competition are invited to bring pupils in for a creative day, where they will have their work celebrated and presented to them in the form of professionally designed postcards.
If you have been involved as a judge on the competition, this is a great opportunity to be paid to help celebrate the pupils' achievements. If you have applied to run a workshop but were unsuccessful in that application, this is an opportunity to develop your skills by shadowing one of the workshops delivered on the day. Other ambassadors may also apply, of course, but priority will be given to people with a connection already to the project and then those with an interest in multi-lingual poetry.
Please apply with a short statement, giving details of your interest in the project. We don't need too much information because priority will be given, on this occasion, to people who have already worked with the Poetry Library on schools events, or who have been involved with the project previously.
For further details about the Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition, please see Mother Tongue Other Tongue | Manchester Metropolitan University