Electing the new protector of Narnia?
We took a trip through the wardrobe last week, working on some amazing speeches with Years 3 and 4 at the Prince of Wales School, Dorchester. The whole school has been working on C.S. Lewis’ classic ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ and the class were shocked to discover that Aslan had disappeared from Narnia!
OctoBanana and Ancient Wolf Save the Day
Had a great time today working with some very exciting writers from Year 3 and Year 4 at Beaminster St Mary’s Academy. They were a brilliant group to work with and the ideas for stories were just tumbling out!
Creating Curious Characters with Beaminster St Mary’s
We had a great time this morning working with some wonderful writers from Years 5 and 6 at Beaminster St. Mary’s Academy. Not only did they help us identify and catch the thief who stole a story from our bank vault, but they also invented a whole cast of amazing characters that live in the Town of Dreams and Nightmares. Rest assured, we will be stepping up security at the Bank in future!
Behind the scenes film of RESONATE
We are so happy to share with you the behind the scenes film of our RESONATE event. The actual full film will be premiering on December 15th on our website.
The Vault meets Cole Brauer
In one of our most action packed interviews yet, the journalists from our after school press club, The Vault, interviewed solo round-the-world yachtswoman, Cole Brauer. To make matters even more incredible, the interview took place mid-race from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!
Young musicians’ call to arms to help save the planet
Tuesday night saw the culmination of the fantastic “Listen Up!” project. Led by B-Sharp. this project has given a voice to young writers and musicians around Dorset who are concerned about the impacts of the climate change emergency. We worked with some extremely talented young musicians to create song lyrics and manifestos for change; a call to arms from the next generation.
Standing tall and standing out
Sunday night saw an amazing, affecting final performance from some extraordinary young voices. Facilitated by the brilliantly talented Joelle Taylor, the Resonate Project allowed a group of talented young people to tell their stories and their experiences in a performance that no-one who was there will ever forget!
Poetry Pushing Back
We are very excited to be starting the second round of our 3-way poetry project at Axe Valley Academy this week. Led by the incredible Louisa Adjoa Parker, this group of Year 8 and 9 revolutionaries are planning on changing the world with their words. These poems are a call to arms for the next generation.
Sherek and the Evil Bananas
We had a brilliant morning working with Hazel class at St Catherine’s Primary School in Bridport. This talented group of Year 4s and 5s took us on an extraordinary journey and created a sci-fi classic, that was as fantastic as it was unexpected. In their epic tale, we met Sherek, a bald alien who was terrified of water. All would be well in Sherek’s world, if it weren’t for the schemes of Mr and Mrs Bibi, the evil bananas!
Young Voices Making Themselves Heard
Get ready for a performance like no other. Sunday, 7pm sees the culmination of our amazing Resonate project. Last weekend, award winning performance poet, Joelle Taylor, kicked off our 4 weekend workshops for the project and we were blown away by the talented young writers who took part! They all have brave and unique stories to tell.
Dare you enter The Valley?
Monday saw a wonderful launch event celebrating the publication of 'Stories from the Valley', an anthology of fantastic fiction penned by some very talented students from Axe Valley Academy in Axminster.
Stand Back, Bear Grylls! Powerstock Pupils Produce the Ultimate Survival Guide.
We had a great time working with Cogden Class at Powerstock Primary School last week! The amazingly talented writers from Year 3 and 4 used their imaginations and their logical, problem solving abilities to help our Bank Manager escape from a locked underground Vault!
They were so good at solving that problem, that we employed them to help us write a survival guide for all sorts of other problems as well!
Musicians Write Manifestos To Save The World
An amazing group of young musicians from B# Lyme Hub are out to change the world! We had a great time this week working with them to turn their song lyrics highlighting the climate emergency into manifestos for change.
A haunted dress and local spookiness
Those brave journalists from The Vault, our weekly after-school news crew, got a taste for the weird this week, when we visited Bridport Museum to investigate ‘Gladys’ a haunted dress! Seriously.
Mountjoy MASH film their reviews
The creative students from Mountjoy have been hard at work filming their product assessments for The MASH Reviews - a YouTube review channel giving honest opinions on popular products. Their channel will review games, gadgets and gizmos so that young people can make informed decisions about where to spend their money.
The Bank visit No.10 Downing Street!
We had an amazing time working with three schools at No.10 Downing Street on Friday. The workshop was part of No.10s ‘Lessons at 10’ program instigated by Mrs Akshata Murty, the Prime Minister’s wife. The young writers were absolutely incredible and wrote brilliant ‘How to…’s to make current and future Prime Minister’s lives easier.
Poetic revolutionaries!
Get ready, because a group of young poets from Sir John Colfox School, in Bridport are planning to change the world with their words. Our new poetry project got off the ground this week as a group of Year 9 wordsmiths, led by ‘stand-up poet and sustainable nihilist’, Jonny Fluffypunk,
Beaminster authors have finished with a flourish!
Working with the young authors at Beaminster School has been a lot of fun and the latest in our series of short story anthologies is nearly complete. We’ve spent the last eleven weeks investigating characters, settings, folklore, mythology and changing nature, and the stories these amazing writers have produced will blow your minds - seriously!
Influencers! The Mountjoy YouTube Review Crew.
The young people at Mountjoy are becoming YouTube influencers! We had a great time on Thursday, working with the students as they began unboxing and reviewing their first batch of products.
Young Producers create their own Podcasts at the BYCC
We had a great time working with some young writers from the Bridport Youth Community Centre’s Summer Club on creating their own podcasts.