Context

The school is a mixed comprehensive non-denominational school for 11-16 year olds. It serves students from a four mile wide area that is very diverse, socially, economically and culturally. Three quarters of the students, a much higher proportion than average, come from a wide spectrum of minority ethnic heritages with many at the early stages of learning English. The proportion of students eligible for a free school meal is very high as is the number of students with learning difficulties and disabilities. These mainly include students with poor communication skills and a small number who have very limited mobility. High numbers of students join or leave the school at other than standard times. Boys significantly outnumber girls. Attainment on entry is well below average for most year groups.

Attitudes towards writing and attainment before the project

The students we targeted were ones we believed to be talented but who were to different extents disenchanted with the school curriculum. This was particularly the case with boys who were achieving C/D grades but whose predicted grades were higher than this. We also focused on students who needed their confidence building, such as the girl below:

“I use to write in secret… So when the First Story launch came to our school I was excited but nervous….I gradually grew the confidence and learnt how to take the constructive criticism and apply it to my writing. First Story was something I looked forward to every week, the small group of all ages and backgrounds were very supportive and we became a strong unit .... I used to be the quiet, self conscious, undercover scribbler, but First Story made me into a confident writer.”

Aims & principles

Primarily, we were trying to improve grades, but beyond this we wanted students to engage creatively in writing and take ownership of a project. We wanted them to have a space in which they could develop their voices and realise the power and importance of words.

We hoped to give them receptive audiences for their writing and to take pride in their stories. We hoped that the relationship they built with the writer/ mentor would help them develop their aspirations for the future. We also hoped they would start to read and write more independently.

We wanted to find a different way of engaging students in creative writing, particularly G and T students and boys.

We hoped to create an environment that felt different to the classroom.

In Practice

The author came into school on a weekly basis and worked consistently with a small group of ten students who we had selected for the reasons outlined above. At the beginning of the project the students did short writing exercises. We encouraged them to write freely without thinking of spelling, grammar, etc. The author encouraged them to treasure their memories, to notice details and focus on concrete details. The teacher was always an active part of the workshops and joined in on all exercises. This meant that the relationships of trust between student, teacher and writer were strong, with a very different dynamic to that of a classroom. As the project progressed the group began to concentrate on critiquing each others’ writing and revised and edited the work they wanted to have published.

Partnerships

The project was organised by First Story, a literacy charity which pays for acclaimed authors to work as writers-in-residence in challenging secondary schools across the country.

Outcomes

• A professionally published anthology of students’ work.
• An open house event (a book launch for the anthology) at which students read aloud. Parents, governors, teachers, friends and members of the media attended.
• Newspaper articles in the local paper.
• Improved teacher resources.
• Support is being given to alumni students to set up a school literary society and magazine.
• Two students were given scholarships to take part in an Arvon residential writing retreat.
• First Story gave two students work experience placements at the literary agency Rogers, Coleridge and White
• One student had short story published as a First Story postcard.

This has been an absolutely wonderful chance for our students, especially considering the fact that they are on free school meals, live in tough areas and have really challenging lives. It has been a chance for them to really express themselves and to develop a love of language, of writing, to enjoy reading and the process of expressing themselves in a way that is so safe and so freeing. It has enabled them to discover themselves and through the process develop this incredible talent that we knew was there in seed form but now is completely evident to everyone who sees their anthology. I am so proud of them and really grateful to be involved in First Story. - Class teacher

Attitudes and attainment after the project

Marking the mock GCSE papers, it became apparent that First Story had had a very positive effect on the pupils’ writing. The students involved all scored substantially better than they did last year on a similar paper, whereas the majority of other students had not made as much progress. The most noticeable of these was X, who is a D/C borderline pupil and scored a secure B on the creative writing part of the question paper - he was achieving Ds and E’s this time last year. His confidence in his writing has increased.

This student was awarded a place on the Arvon scholarship week. He produced writing of an exceptionally high standard and when asked what he had enjoyed about the week he replied:

“The whole atmosphere. It’s been nice to be in a different environment with different people because you learn from them and learn more about yourself. Having more people and professional writers listening to your work gives you a real chance to develop your writing.”

Legacy

The school will continue with First Story next year with a new set of students. Those who have been through the programme will be involved in setting up a literary society and a magazine.

The teacher will use many of the tools (exercises, etc) in her teaching in the future. She also feels more confident in her own abilities as a writer.

Resources

First Story organised the residency. The school had to contribute a percentage of the cost of paying the writer, but it was heavily subsidised.

Final thought

We would publicise the group to students more widely at the start of the year within the school to ensure that the group size was slightly larger.

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