Tips for We Are Writers

Posted on 4 May 2018

We Are Writers allows you to turn your pupils into published authors. It is a brilliant way to inspire children to write and offers them a unique opportunity to see their own writing, published in a real book.

Saint Benedict Catholic Voluntary Academy are We Are Writers pros with six books to their name. That’s a whole school full authors published in print! We asked them why they loved taking part in the project and what they’ve learned from their experience that could be beneficial for others to hear. Read below to see what they had to say:

The ‘We Are Writers’ initiative has offered our students the unique opportunity to see their writing published in a real book. It has been an incredible way to enthuse and excite them about writing.

We are currently in the sixth year of producing the book and this year’s edition is well under way. We started off on a relatively small scale, with students voluntarily submitting their work for publication, progressing to now, what is a whole school initiative, with contributions from all year groups and abilities, as well as from staff.

Last year, we incorporated the ‘We Are Writers’ into the Year 7 schemes of work, cementing it as part of the curriculum. We have also tried to vary the book slightly every year by having guest chapters and themes. We encourage students to let their creative talents run wild by writing about anything that inspires them. This could be a short story, poem, play script, diary entry, recipe; even the speeches produced for GCSE English Language have been incorporated into the book as a permanent reminder of students’ time in Year 11.

We also run a ‘design the cover’ competition, where students have the opportunity to draw or paint a unique cover which portrays the creativity of writing, the standard of which has been amazing.

We maximise sales of the book by selling it at the same time as running the Book Fair, making some commission for the school library at the same time. To raise interest we promote the project on our school Boodle pages and on Twitter.

We look forward to showcasing the writing talents of our pupils and firmly believe that if given the opportunity to write, students love to get involved and are proud of their work.

- Dr. T Burrell, Librarian and Learning Centre Manager, Saint Benedict Catholic Voluntary Academy