Students have been taking part in the First Story Young Writers Programme, which gives young people the opportunity to be part of a national network of writers discovering the power and pleasure of telling their own stories. Students have developed their writing skills, creativity and confidence through a series of 16 workshops with Writer-in-Residence, Ben Mellor.  Throughout the process, Ben inspired them to try new writing forms and styles that they might not have come across before.

We had a lot of success with our writing along the way, winning several national First Story competitions, including, Harriet Hassall, who won one of only 16 places on a Young Writer’s Residential Course at Hebden Bridge, Sahid Sesay, who came third in the 100-Word Story Competition, and Jessie Njoku who placed second in the Eco Poetry Competition.

Students selected their best works to be included in the anthology and had a chance to input their ideas into what the anthology cover would look like. 

The culmination of the project was our anthology launch, where students were able to perform some of their work to an audience of friends and family. The evening was compèred by Ben Mellor, who also performed one of his poems, which really set the tone for our students to perform their own writing.

Our student authors received their own copies of the anthology to keep and a copy has also been placed in the British Library. There are also copies available for all students to borrow from the Academy Library.