Writing retreat

We started out by creating a learning environment, where the students could excel, helping to generate ideas. The location was specially chosen as a quiet, peaceful environment to aid the students with their thesis writing.

Throughout the three-day writing retreat, we ran different sessions highlighting top tips to help the students write more effectively. We carried out exercises on subjects including:

• different writing approaches, such as free writing
• beginning with the end in mind of your writing
• how utilising different environments can help you think, plan and write

We wanted to offer more than just time to write, so we ran activities with the group at various points to create energy and ignite creativity.

We spent a huge amount of time offering coaching support to the students (either in the venue or by walking around the amazing grounds at the venue), to help them create time to think, plan and focus on areas that were important to them individually.

The retreat was a reminder of just how important it is to check in with like-minded people, so you can support each other. It also highlighted how important it is to be given space and time to think; creating a psychologically safe environment, where everyone can be their true, authentic selves. It was beautiful to observe everyone opening up and an honour to be able to help create this environment for all the students.

We gained stunningly positive feedback from the retreat, even when some students found the process more challenging. Everybody was able to make progress and achieve the goals they set for themselves. It was amazing to see so much progression and how each student thrived!