Five bursary places available to study for a University of Cambridge PGCert in Teaching Creative Writing at its Institute of Continuing Education
First Story’s Blog
New First Story Young Ambassadors Programme
Our new Young Ambassadors Programme is an exciting supported volunteering opportunity for alumni keen to continue their engagement with creative writing. It puts young people at the heart of promoting creative writing within their schools and local communities.
Announcing: Rathbones Folio Prize Mentorships 2020/21
In its fourth year, the Rathbones Folio Prize Mentorships scheme pairs four talented First Story alumni with acclaimed writers from the Folio Academy, receiving a year of 1:1 mentoring support to further develop their writing craft.
Announcing: Rathbones Folio Prize Mentorships 2020/21Read More
Summer 2020 Virtual Residential
In light of the coronavirus pandemic, this summer, our annual residential programme took place virtually. With participants connecting entirely online, we managed to maintain almost all of the key elements that make this project so special and impactful.
Post-pandemic, how could literacy education change?
For a recent virtual roundtable, we asked three prominent figures in arts and education, Prof. Dame Alison Peacock, Kate Clanchy MBE, and the Young Vic’s Lorna McGinty: What needs to be in place for the schools sector to ensure high quality, holistic literacy provision which has long term impact on outcomes for all children?
Post-pandemic, how could literacy education change?Read More
First Story writers create new BHM resources
Three writers – Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Bridget Minamore, and Khadijah Ibrahiim – have produced a series of creative-writing resources for Black History Month that can be used in the classroom and beyond. Read their powerful forewords.
Saint Gabriel’s College ’20:20 Vision’ anthology launch
After months of lockdown and Zoom meetings, our CEO got to attend a First Story anthology launch in person earlier this month —albeit socially-distanced—when she went along to St Gabriel’s College in South London, to help students celebrate the publication of their new anthology ’20:20 Vision’.
Saint Gabriel’s College ’20:20 Vision’ anthology launchRead More
Creative Writing and Social and Emotional Learning
Lockdown has spotlighted the vital role schools and teachers play in supporting pupils’ wellbeing. Jess Tickell reflects on the relationship between creative writing and social and emotional learning.
National Writing Day 2020 #247Challenge Highlights
National Writing Day 2020 was framed around a mass participation creative writing exercise, the #247Challenge. As a call to action, it proved to be incredibly popular, with thousands of stories and poems shared online. Here we have collated just a few of the incredible submissions we read.
Rathbones Folio Mentorships 2020-21 Open
First Story alumni can apply until the 31 July 2020 to take part in the 20/21 Rathbones Folio Mentorships programme, for a chance to work for a year with an acclaimed pro author. Two of this year’s mentees, Mariamah Davey and Nidaa Raoof, share their reasons to get involved.
National Writing Day Instagram takeover!
In the week leading up to this year’s National Writing Day on 24 June, we invited two former First Story students from West Yorkshire, Henna Ravjibhai (17) and Sophie Crabtree (19), to take over our Instagram account — as a platform to share their experiences as young writers, and hopefully inspire other young people to practice writing creatively too.
First Story partnership with Unislam
Throughout 2019-20, we’ve been working in partnership with Unislam, the National Slam Poetry Festival, to place Unislam artists as ‘shadow writers’ in First Story schools. Jess Tickell caught up with one of these shadow writers, Sophie Horton.