Tuesday 1 September 2026
King's College recently celebrated Literacy Week. To wrap it up, we're shining a spotlight on English Teacher Ms Nelson's wonderful Writing Club!
Open to students of all ages, the club's main aim is to develop students' skills and confidence in producing creative writing. With writers of all levels attending, the club provides a place where students can let their imagination run wild and flex their creative writing skills.
The club provides students with a creative oasis and those involved in the club are also encouraged to submit their work to various writing competitions.
"We work on a lot of different pieces throughout the year, and enter into a lot of competitions. Recently we entered into the Anzac writing competition run by Auckland Museum, where we produced a beautiful anthology of poetry entitled Lest We Forget. Our very own Elizabeth Walker (Year 13, Marion Bruce) was selected as a finalist in this competition, and was asked to read her poem Remembrance at their morning Anzac Service." — Ms Hope Nelson.
Members of the Writing Club have also entered into the Sargeson Prize for short stories, and are currently working on essays for the Mental Health Week writing competition.
"All of this work goes into anthologies which are distributed across the school. This level of involvement gives our students a taste of what it's like to compete on a national or international stage, but also to have their work recognised across the school and by their peers."
"The Writing Club has been running for quite some time at the College. However, this year, I've taken on the responsibility of running it and want to, in some ways, step it up. Some of my students are working towards an English scholarship, and I feel that it's important to incorporate a level of preparation for this into the club. This also gives students a chance to be highlighted internationally, and to see what else is out there."
Ms Nelson's rich background in teaching English is an inspiring factor in her commitment towards the development of creative writing skills.
"The Cambridge syllabus especially, focuses heavily on the analysis of literature. This is still fantastic and it opens up incredible pathways for our students, however, you don't get many opportunities to flex your creative writing muscles which is what I find our students enjoy the most!"
Now more than ever, Ms Nelson feels that it is important to exercise creativity, especially with the rapidly increasing use of Artificial Intelligence in the writing space.
"With the rapidly increasing capabilities of Artificial Intelligence, exercising your creativity has never been more important. It's a skill that is often put aside in favour of analytical writing, so it has become harder and harder to encourage students to think of their own ideas when it's so easy to put a prompt into AI and have it do that work for you. Even the initial ideation stages are slipping away from them in some ways, but I think that's one of the most interesting things we can do as human beings is to be original. It's an exercise in building your brain."
To fuel students' imaginations in the Writing Club, Ms Nelson holds meetings which act as thinking sessions. Ideas are discussed in a group setting or in a one-on-one, where she encourages students to openly explore their imagination to get ideas freely flowing. Ms Nelson says that, generally, students involved in the club are excellent at coming up with original ideas and themes.
Recently, the group had an excursion to the Auckland Writers' Festival, where they heard a superb array of writers speak. Extracurricular opportunities like this serve an educational purpose, while also providing inspiration for their craft.
"Students draw inspiration from everywhere, and it's very rewarding to see them be able to turn it into a unique piece of literature. For example, sometimes they've just finished reading a book, or recounted an experience at school or at home, and that has inspired them to create something that means something to them and is original.
With the Anzac poetry competition, some of our students thought about the experiences of their ancestors, or what they've read about in the Chapel regarding the King's students who gave their lives in battle.
Human beings will always have a creative bone in their body, and that's what we aim to bring out and exercise."