Gateshead Young Writers’ Programme Overview
Young Writers’ City
A targeted programme of 280 classroom workshops and 120 extracurricular sessions in 2 secondary schools, plus 54 classroom workshops in 2 primary schools.
Grace College
Weekly creative writing sessions in Grace College (February 2019 – March 2020), with 463 young people from Years 7, 8 and 9, each working on a term-long term project. Within this programme we worked with 15 young people in the Alternative Learning Centre for young people who have been excluded from mainstream classes.
Kingsmeadow Community School
Weekly creative writing sessions in Kingsmeadow Community School (February 2019 – March 2020), with 311 young people in Years 7 and 8 each working on a term-long project.
Kelvin Grove Primary School
Weekly song writing sessions in Kelvin Grove Primary School (December 2012–January 2020) with 50 young people in Year 5 and 6, followed by choir rehearsals with a select group of Year 5 pupils in December 2019/January 2020.
Larkspur Community Primary School
Weekly creative writing sessions in Larkspur Community Primary School (June-July 2019) with 42 young people in Year 5 and 6.
An embedded song writing and scriptwriting project across multiple year groups in Larkspur Community Primary School (March – July 2021).
Extracurricular Creative Writing
40 pupils participated in lunchtime and after-school creative writing groups at Kingsmeadow and Grace College.
Young Writers’ Groups
Open access creative writing programmes.
Saturday Workshops
Weekly Saturday workshops at Gateshead Central Library from June 2019 – March 2020 and May – July 2021, engaging 10 young writers.
Summer School
A social action summer school engaging 10 young people.
Poetry and Dance
A poetry and dance project for young dancers in partnership with Gateway Studio in Spring 2021 engaging 8 young people.
“a space free from judgement,
unlike the rest of the world.”
(Gateshead Young Writer)
Well Read
A reading and creative writing project to support young people with their mental health and wellbeing.
Sessions
12 sessions between June – July 2021, with 7 young women from Whickham School.
Creative writing in the community
57 workshops in the community for 45 young people.
Community Project
A community project on the Beacon Lough estate with Larkspur House community centre in October 2019.
Song Writing Sessions
Weekly song writing sessions with young residents of Beacon Lough from January – March 2020.
Creative Writing Sessions
7 creative writing sessions for young people in the care system, two of whom were supported to participate in Curious Monkey’s ‘Care About Care’ conferences in 2019 and 2020.
“It’s been lush! We’ve all loved it.
It’s the absolute highlight of the week”
(Teacher, Larkspur Community Primary School)
Digital creative writing
A programme of remote workshops and resources delivered during lockdown in response to the ongoing impact of Covid-19.
Digital Resources
39 digital resources (workshops and videos) that have collectively been viewed over 1500 times.
Summer School
An online summer school for 57 young people.
Online Sessions
30 online sessions delivered throughout lockdown, attended by 41 young people.
Remote Learning Resources
Remote resources for creative writing created for Kingsmeadow Community School during lockdown.
Remote Schools’ Sessions
Weekly remote sessions with Kingsmeadow Community School from April – July 2021.
Inkubator
Professional development and mentoring programme for writers interested in working with young people.
Sessions
6 sessions, training 6 emerging writers to become creative facilitators.