One Day in the City

British Museum, Senate House, Darwin Lecture Theatre

We are very proud to be working in partnership with First Story to offer a number of creative writing workshops on 15 June 2012. Both Daljit Nagra and Salena Godden will be working alongside volunteers and teachers to guide schoolchildren through the creative writing process. The children will begin the day in the British Museum, where they will be inspired by an artefact; they will proceed to Senate House Library where the writing workshops will take place; and in the afternoon they will make their way to UCL where some of  the writing will be performed alongside that of novelists Adam Thirlwell and Will Self.

First Story seeks to address the educational disadvantage faced by children in challenging social and economic circumstances. We focus on schools where more than 50% of pupils are considered deprived according to the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index and GCSE results in the lowest third of the national distribution. We strive to raise achievement, self-confidence and aspiration through creative instruction.

Working closely with teachers, acclaimed writers run weekly creative writing workshops with up to 21 students aged 14 to 18. We publish the students’ work in anthologies and arrange public readings. Since 2007, First Story has arranged for 150 authors to work with 56 teachers in 27 schools across the country. Some 1,150 students have written an estimated 18,400 stories and poems.