FIRST STORY LIMITED
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Mission Statement
First Story changes lives through writing. We believe that writing can transform lives, and that there is dignity and power in every young person’s story. First Story brings talented, professional writers into secondary schools serving low-income communities to work with teachers and students to foster creativity and communication skills. By helping students find their voices through intensive, fun programmes, First Story raises aspirations and gives students the skills and confidence to achieve them. Since 2008 we have had 317 residencies in schools and have worked with more than 4,500 students, 150 acclaimed writers, and more than 4,800 teachers. Our students have produced more than 100,000 original stories and poems. It is our goal that every school-age child should have access to excellent creative provision and life-changing opportunities regardless of their background. This year we are working with 70 schools and 1,500 students around the UK.
About This Cause
First Story aims to bridge the creativity gap created by inequalities in the cultural opportunities available in a state school education and a private school one. We focus on schools in which more than 50% of pupils are considered deprived according to the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index and/or GCSE results fall in the lowest third of the national distribution. We are currently working with 70 schools and 1,500 students across the East Midlands, Gloucestershire, London, the South West and Yorkshire. We work with young people with limited access to cultural resources and opportunities, and connect them with the literary community to extend their interests, aspirations and engagement in learning. Our programme places talented, professional writers into secondary schools to run weekly creative-writing workshops with groups of students for a week, a term or a year – an activity that culminates with the publication of an anthology of their work and a book-launch event. We build on this by offering additional opportunities such as an annual Young Writers' Festival, trips to cultural venues and universities, visits from writers to schools, writing competitions and a summer writing residential course for selected students. Through the programme, students are taught to draw on their own life experiences as a basis for writing, which gives them the confidence to know that their lives, stories and voices are important. This goes on to improve non-cognitive skills such as self-esteem, life satisfaction and resilience, and has a huge impact on their attainment and sense of aspiration. Students gain skills that will stay with them throughout their lives: this can underpin their success in school, support their transition to further education and employment, and enhance the quality of their lives. In an external evaluation in 2015-16, run by education think-tank LKMCo, the following findings were made: • 100% of teachers and writers involved in the programme report that writing has improved for all or the majority of their First Story students; • 92% report that their students are more confident as a result of doing First Story; • 82% report that when they are being creative, their students are more likely to keep going until they are happy with their work; • 72% report that their students are more likely to believe that they have a lot of options in life. Additionally, our evaluations showed that students used more representation and demonstrated greater originality in their creative writing at the end of First Story, and survey data suggested that this was due to the programme’s positive impact on students’ creativity. 'To you, this organisation may just be a writing charity, but to me it is so much more. First Story has changed my life. It has transformed me from an insecure, lost, quiet, sixteen-year-old refugee, completely embarrassed about every aspect of her identity, to a confident, defiant, ambitious, proud Scottish-African Muslim woman, who is determined to shape her future, and make life better for those around her. It has made me realise that I am significant, and that my voice is important in this world.' Azfa, First Story alumna