Our Annual Skills Share Day is a chance for our writers to come together, undertake peer to peer training and hear our plans for the year ahead. On Tuesday 9th September, we welcomed First Story writers from East Midlands, London, the North West and Yorkshire to our 2025 event at our office in London. Writers who are new to First Story, who we hope to place in residencies, attended along with our more experienced writers.
We began the day with the First Story team presenting updates. Our CEO Sophie Hiscock welcomed everyone and shared a review of the 2024/25 First Story year. Head of Programmes Beth Goddard talked through our exciting 2025/26 events calendar and noted programme developments for the coming year and Senior Programme Manager Rachael Bamber workshopped the needs of young writers.
After a lovely sunny lunch on CLPE picnic tables the afternoon sessions commenced with First Story writers leading sessions. Adam Kammerling shared an overview of the pilot project at Eko Pathways, an SEMH school in Newham. Cecilia Knapp lead a workshop on working with boys and Adam Robinson delivered an editing skills session. Young Creatives Manager Rose Condo shared updates on the Young Creatives project.
First Story’s writers are an essential part of our programme, acting as both ambassadors for First Story within their assigned school, and for creative writing within their region. We look forward to supporting our writers through the year ahead and creating access to further writer development and learning opportunities.
Feedback on the day
First story is amazing and I feel I left some useful things as well as filling up with skills and takeaways. Thank you, thank you, thank you loads.
It’s always informative to see how other practitioners approach the challenges within the classroom. Sometimes as an individual we can feel quite alone, so it’s wonderful to brainstorm with others about different approaches to achieve success.
I particularly enjoyed Adam K’s workshop on his interdisciplinary practice. It was really invigorating to understand new approaches and methodologies for creative expression. It’s always great to hear about First Story’s evolving plans, particularly the Young Creatives and their upcoming zine.
