i wrote my 1st poem in the 1st class! usually positve encouraging feedback from class members - except once when i was wickedly crushed!tutor is a working poet so knows her stuff both traditional and contemporary

Super course, informative, challenging, fun. [The tutor] and the class really helped me make progress and stimulated interest in aspects of the topic I had previously overlooked.

You learnt a good bit about the structure and what makes a poem in this course. The negative is that it's filled with people who have taken courses with the tutor before and they tend to take over the class.

I LOVED this course! The teacher is brilliant - she manages to encourage even the most bashful and timid to write, and sees value in every poem from the amateur to the professional. the feedback is always looking for the positive rather than being too challenging, which definitely helps fledgling writers to have the confidence to try out new things. I have learned loads - not just writing but also with reading a diverse range of published poets and poems. Highly recommend - I am going back next term!

A very fulfilling experience - the course is incredibly well taught; the class is encouraged to be supportive and challenging in a very positive way; writing and listening to poetry turns out to be something rooted in experience yet surprising and rather miraculous - very rewarding.

Having completed two terms of this course, I'd thoroughly recommend it. The balance between structure and fluidity, humour and seriousness, craziness and sanity, is exactly what has been needed to get me writing again after a 'dry' period. If you were completely new to poetry it would be just the thing too. The tutor has such a lively mind. She pounces on the slightest shred of talent and makes you aware of stuff that you were blind to - in others' work as well as in your own.

The class combines a neatly chosen small byte of theory and knowledge about modern poetry and plenty of space and lots of encouragement to write and perform your own poems. The tutor creates a light-hearted atmosphere with warmth, encouragement and humour. Students are becoming very enthusiastic and everyone now seems to be writing a poem a week. Hmm.. let's see if I can turn this review into a poem too? You see it's catching, this poetry thing.

This is a brilliant introductory course to writing poetry that builds your confidence as well as your skills. The tutor creates a really safe space for people who might be nervous reading their poetry aloud (like I was!). You learn about the building blocks of poetry, get practical exercises to try them out and homework - which is optional!