Jen Jackson-Ellery

When I was eleven, a poet came to visit my school. He presented the class with an oil painting of a ship in a storm and (after a few pointers) asked us to write a poem about it. I tried to capture the vivid colors and movement of the perilous ocean and compared the buffeted ship to my experience of grief, after the recent passing of my Grandad. When the poet emotionally told me my work was “moving,” it caught me by surprise! At eleven, I had made an adult feel something. That was the moment I realized that anyone could be a writer and all writers are powerful.

It has been twenty years since then and I haven't stopped writing. I self-published a collection of poetry and have dipped my toes into other kinds of writing, including novels, short stories and blogs. I tend to write in bursts and always carry a notebook and pencil, just in case. I love to read and many of my hobbies revolve around storytelling, including Tabletop RPGs such as Dungeons and Dragons. Most of my childhood involved hiding away in nature with a book and very little has changed in adulthood (though often, now, my children are with me!).

After my Bachelor's degree in English and a period of volunteering and working in mainstream education, I began to research alternative ways of learning, hungry for something more than the rigidity of the traditional classroom. Homeschooling felt like the perfect fit for my book-loving, nature-exploring, adventure-seeking family. Both of my kids are home-educated and we spend our days reading aloud, figuring things out, investigating the outdoors and cozying up for Poetry Teatime! I hail from Bristol, UK and now live in Nottingham, UK. I am an LGBTQIA+ parent and when I'm not writing, coaching or home educating, I am usually found out in nature with my family, growing vegetables at our allotment, or curled up with a coffee and a craft project, or a book!

Jen Jackson-Ellery's Classes: