Every child has something to say.

We make sure it’s heard.

The Bank of Dreams and Nightmares works with children and young people aged 7–19 across Dorset. Free workshops, after-school clubs, school programmes and an annual festival, with a particular welcome for those who have been failed, forgotten, or told their voice doesn’t matter.

The Bank of Dreams and Nightmares uses the power of creative writing to keep young people engaged, inspired, and confident enough to have a go at whatever they set their minds to.

HOW THE BANK WORKS

Four steps from a blank page to something the world has heard.

01

Deposit

A young person writes something. Anything. A poem, a story, a podcast, a survival guide for a Bank Manager stuck in a vending machine. They deposit it with us.

02

Hold it safely

No marks. No grades. No judgement. Just attention, encouragement, and the unhurried space to make the writing better.

03

Grow interest

We share their work professionally: published books, recorded songs, stage performances, podcast episodes, museum takeovers. The story earns its interest in the world.

04

Withdraw

The young person walks away knowing: I had something worth saying. People listened. I can do this again.

What we do is not complicated.‍

What happens as a result is

remarkable.

Our schools do extraordinary work.

We help them do one more

extraordinary thing.

What children need most, alongside everything their teachers already give them is the capacity to think flexibly, communicate powerfully, persevere, and believe at a fundamental level that they are capable of remarkable things.

That’s where we come in.

Writing enjoyment is falling. Mental health need is rising. And in classrooms where every piece of writing comes with a rubric and a list of success criteria, writing stops being something a child does because they want to. It becomes something they endure because they have to.

So we work with schools, not around them.

We bring what the system can’t. Trained Story Mentor volunteers sitting one-to-four alongside the pupils. The “not school” feel that lets a reluctant writer step through the door and try. Real-world outcomes; a published book, a recorded song, a bookshop launch, a byline in a newspaper, that no amount of marking can deliver. We don’t correct. We don’t grade. We hand them the camera.

That’s why we built the Primary Progression Model — a four-year partnership with a school, not a one-off visit — and why our ambition for the next three years is to work more deeply, with more schools, year after year.

28.7%

of 8–18 year olds enjoy writing in their free time (NLT, 2026)

72%

of pupils reached the expected standard in writing at KS2 — the lowest of any core subject (DfE, 2024)

10.1

months

the disadvantage gap by the end of primary school. (Education Policy Institute)

A word about the Bank Manager.

Whenever we go into a school we have to take our RED bank phone with us just in case the BANK MANAGER needs to get in touch. The Bank Manager is the boss and they are always grumpy. They are convinced that children cannot write stories, and perfectly happy to tell them so, down the BANK PHONE, in front of the whole class.

Time after time, the children prove the Bank Manager wrong. By the end of every workshop, without fail, every single child in the room is desperate to read their story aloud to the Bank Manager themselves.

Special thanks got to OPIS technology for supplying our brilliant phones.

FIVE STOPS ON THE JOURNEY

A relationship with creative writing that can last a lifetime.

We meet young people where they are, in school, after school, on weekends, on stage. Together our five strands form a journey that can begin in primary school and continue well into young adulthood.

Primary Progression

PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Structured workshop programmes embedded into the school curriculum, with a 1:4 mentor-to-writer ratio. We don’t bolt creative writing on as a reward. We grow it with the child, year on year, as a tool for learning across every subject.

“The workshops have been an invaluable part of our whole-school approach to improving writing, particularly for disadvantaged pupils.” — Leif Overment, Headteacher, Salway Ash CE VA Primary School

The Next Chapter

SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Research suggests up to 70% of secondary school pupils are simply waiting for lessons to end. We work intensively in schools with students at risk of disengaging entirely — using creative writing not just to develop literacy, but to rebuild a young person’s relationship with learning itself.

“What The Bank of Dreams and Nightmares does is something very special.” — Phil Wilson, Deputy Head, Axe Valley Academy

After-school Clubs

PODCASTING, THE WRITERS ACCOUNT & THE VAULT

For the young writers who want more. Weekly sessions that are deliberately distinct from school: relaxed, playful, ambitious and warm. No success criteria. Only the story. Older members mentor younger ones. The club becomes a home.

“Our daughter feels accepted and comfortable to be herself at The Vault… we feel extremely lucky to have found Nick and the team.”
— Parent of young writer

Resonate

OUR SPOKEN WORD EVENT

For young people whose voices are the least likely to be heard: those in or leaving care, young carers, asylum seekers, those involved with the justice system, NEET. Resonate begins from a different premise: these young people don’t need fixing. They need a stage. The work culminates in a live showcase at The Bridport Literary Festival.

“Your faith in the kids and vision for the project has reignited my love of youth arts. Thank you.”
— Joelle Taylor, poet and author

Bankfest

OUR ANNUAL FESTIVAL

Not a literary event for the culturally confident. A free, multi-day festival that brings young people from across Dorset, specifically those who would never ordinarily encounter people who make their living with words, into direct contact with the professionals who do exactly that. Games designers, advertising copywriters, human rights lawyers, lyricists, sports journalists, TV comedy writers. Transport provided. No barriers beyond turning up.

“I want to be a writer now. Before, I didn’t think that was something people like me did.” — Young writer, Bankfest

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See all our programmes

our IMPACT

The journey, not just the destination.

The young person who came back.

When we talk about impact at the Bank, we mean more than test scores and attendance figures (though we track those too, and the results are compelling.) We mean the young person who came back. The Resonate participant from 2023 who now sits on our board of trustees. The pupil who hands in work for the first time in months. The teenager who re-enrols in college after Resonate. The child whose self-portrait starts tiny and uncertain and ends the term filling the page with a beaming smile. We think that’s the truest measure.

Every time a young person walks back through our door by choice — as a participant, as a junior mentor, as a volunteer, as a trustee — they are telling us something important: this place mattered.

We track the metrics. Writing attainment goes up. School engagement goes up. NEET young people re-enrol in education. But the story we are proudest to tell is the one Zoe tells below.

A letter from Zoe, who came to us at 15 — school attendance below 30%

“The first session was the day after my 15th birthday, one of the lowest points of my life. My autism, anxiety and personal life had taken a downward spiral and my school attendance had plummeted under 30 percent. I spent my days at home, never interacting with anyone besides my Mum and little brother.

I had lost all confidence in myself. When the time came for me to read out my first piece in the Resonate workshops, I refused. I was convinced my writing wasn’t good enough to be read to a genuine poet like Joelle Taylor.

When the second writing exercise came around, Joelle and the volunteers all encouraged me to read out my work. I did. I don’t remember anything that was said about it. But I do remember seeing everyone smile and ask me to read my poem again, so they could really listen to what I had to say and the way I chose to say it.

This is the exact pinpoint moment where I felt real pride and unfiltered joy for the first time in about 3 years. I doubt I ever would have written again if not for this moment made by The Bank of Dreams and Nightmares.

Today I read my work out proudly at every session. I am now in college full time. I even won the Andy Jacobs award for mental health and wellbeing as a result of my work with this charity.

One day I will be too old to keep attending, but I won’t let that stop me. I will never stop writing again. If I cannot take part in The Bank of Dreams and Nightmares as a young person, I will return as a volunteer and give back to the charity that changed me.

Hasta la vista baby,”

— Zoe