Aspire Academy has been lucky enough to work with the National Literacy Trust, getting our students excited about writing. Comic, Ruth Cockburn, delivered interactive sessions and guided our Year 8s through the creative process in making musical comedy which culminated in them writing and performing their own lyrics to music. Additionally, as part of the Trust’s programme, we have been blessed to have local youth-worker-turned-author Nathan Parker delivering sessions on creative writing and poetry.

Born and bred in Blackpool, Nathan was able to tell the kids first-hand how their lived experiences put them in a unique position with his mantras ‘you are the expert’ and ‘progress not perfection’, to write thrilling stories. The children were highly engaged and motivated to write stories to the extent that we ran a short-story competition with the winner being lucky enough to win signed copies of the first two novels in the Granville Series, which have both been nominated for Lancashire Book of the Year Award.


Nathan Parker delivering one of his sessions last week

The sessions have been a real success, with the Year 8 students commenting on how engaging the sessions were; giving them the confidence to write for pleasure and one even went so far as to say that they have been inspired to write their very own novel!!! We look forward to reading their work in the future and, as always, encourage them to strive for ‘Success, nothing less’.