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This half term, one of our Year 8 English classes have been taking part in the National Literacy Trust’s Power of Voice programme.

The programme aims to empower young people to tell the stories that matter to them, harnessing the power of writing to share experiences with a real audience and drive change.

As part of the project, the students attended three fabulous creative writing workshops with author Ciaran Thapar (pictured below). During the workshops Ciaran facilitated some really thoughtful group discussions about social issues important to the students and gave them the confidence they needed to put pen to paper and express their views.  

Ciaran also shared his expertise with students through 1:1 feedback sessions where students could read their work and share their intentions.

At the end of the project, each student had produced a piece of independent writing that explores an important social issue and demands real change from the world. Some students wrote stories, others wrote speeches and many chose express themselves using poetry. The next step in the project is to share this wonderful work with the wider community so it can generate the change our students want to see in the world.

"The project is a great way for students to explore their civic identities and use their own voices to reach a specific audience through selecting a form for their piece," said Ms Morris. "It’s been brilliant to see the students speaking so passionately about their selected social issue.’

You can see some of the marvellous social writing the students produced below.

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War, by Mina K

When will the bombing stop?

Aren’t we all welcomed and accepted in the West?

Re-write history and fix the mistakes.

The war will end.

The enemies will shake hands and create peace.

The old woman will keep waiting

for her martyred son,

the wife will wait for her husband

and those children will wait

for their heroic father.

The war will end.

Gun shots left and right,

is this war really worth the fight?

Bombs dropping one by one,

is this really worth the run?

Families torn apart,

are you happy with your part?

The best thing about war is its end,

and it will not stop until

we all accept each other and become friends.

I don’t know who sold our homeland,

but I saw who paid the price.

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Child Exploitation, by Celine A-N

I rush out of the door as I frantically put my jacket on.

My heart is beating out of my chest as I’m sprinting down the street. I’m late. What will they do to me once I get there? Will they let me off just this once? These are all the things I am thinking about right now. My mind is repeating the same thing over and over. If only she didn’t leave me all alone with my ‘so-called’ sister, things would have turned out different. After what feels like hours, I make it to the meeting place. My hands are shaking as I turn the doorknob and step inside.

I walk along the corridor and the smell of smoke invades my nose. I hate it here. It’s like I’m walking into hell itself. I walk down the end of the corridor and lightly knock on the door.

“Come in!”, a man yells through the door. There’s more smoke in here than there was in the corridor. This truly is hell.

“You’re late.” The man stands up and walks over to me, causing a shadow over my face. While I mentally prepare myself for the worst, he pulls a blade out of his pocket, placing it on my neck. My heart is racing uncontrollably. I release a heavy breath as my eyes start to water. “Keep this up, and I’ll make sure you will suffer badly. Understand?” I nod quickly, as I feel little drops of blood fall down my neck as he presses harder.

Eventually, he lets go and backs away from me, not breaking eye contact. He walks to the coffee tale, grabs a plastic bag and hands its over to me.

“Go to this address and give these to the man, he will be wearing a grey hoodie. Don’t you dare mess this up.” He states, narrowing his eyes at me. I look down and nod. “You can go now.” He says, shoving me to go.

I open the door and walk down the corridors of hell. I open the front door and head out, leaving with a heavy heart. If only she hadn’t left us…

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This story is a representation of child exploitation. This is common all over London and is often overlooked. A way in which this can be prevented is if schools have a member of the social services on site so the students can talk to someone. When a parent leaves their child, the child could end up all alone and find other – possibly dangerous – ways to get money and fend for themselves. This is why a child needs a parent-figure to guide them in the right direction. The government needs to spend less time on unnecessary changes and start looking at the social issues in our society and put more funds into child services.

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Author Ciaran Thapar reads from his own work to inspire students during the Power of Voice writing workshop.