Case Study: First Story and Cultural Residencies

Following a different model to My Primary School is at the Museum, First Story runs the Schools and Writers programme, linking published writers with secondary schools in low income areas for a creative writing residency. Writers are matched with a school or class and visit once a week, for between 8 - 16 weeks, each time delivering a writing workshop. In October 2015, Arts Council England called for children to have the opportunity to ‘create, make and compose; visit, experience and critically review; and participate and contribute’. This is something reflected in both the MPSM pilots and the Schools and Writers programme.

As with the My Primary School is at the Museum pilots, this aims to create sustained links rather than a one-off visit and all teachers report that children’s writing improves following residencies, and many of the students can identify their own improvements. Each writer tailors their workshops to the local school they are working with and the group will produce a range of creative writing outputs over the course of the project. Students involved in First Story projects up to now have produced more than 100,000 original stories and poems.

Having started by running eight creative writing residencies in eight London schools in 2008, this academic year First Story will run creative writing residencies across England. First Story works with schools where 50% of students or more are deprived according to the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index and/or GCSE results fall in the lowest third of the national distribution. The model requires no transport arrangements as the writer visits the school each week so limits the amount of administration usually required by off-site educational visits. This is a practical way of opening up schools to cultural experiences that their students may not have previously experienced. In March 2016, this sentiment of reducing the inequality between groups in society so that everyone can enjoy the benefits of cultural experiences was recognised in the Culture White Paper (DCMS) stating,

‘Everyone should enjoy the opportunities culture offers, no matter where they start in life.’

An anthology of the students’ work is created and published at the end of the project and all teachers have reported this to be an important aspect of the project. This draws upon the sense of co-creating new pieces of work.

What does this type of residency offer to students? Although with an older group of children compared with the MPSM pilots, the impact of the Schools and Writers programme also showed benefits in social and emotional learning as well as academic achievement. First Story notes the impact on ‘Well-Being & Confidence’ as well as attainment. For example, 100% of teachers and writers reported that the programme increased students’ self-esteem and aspiration. When reflecting on the impact on attainment, 100% of teachers reported some or most of their students’ writing and reading improved beyond predicted levels. This suggests that projects offering the extended model of cultural experience are offering multi-faceted opportunities to the cohorts of students involved.

One student, Sania Riaz, said,

‘First Story has had a major impact on my life. When I began First Story, I had no clue what I wanted to do in the future or where I wanted to be. But here I am this year attending university to study English with Creative Writing. Whether you want to be a writer, or go into science or any other subject, First Story will give you the confidence to become who you want to be.’

A measure of the scalable impact of this project is that 317 residencies in schools have taken place up until now. First Story have worked with more than 4,500 students, partnering schools with 150 writers. This shows the opportunities that can be created when a tried and tested model is expanded to a larger audience and consequently the huge number of students that have been able to benefit from a unique cultural experience.