- All Write! 2011 Gala Presentation (Thursday, October 13, 2011)
Click here for blog of the day
- Charlie Higson Event
Manchester Libraries, in association with the Manchester Children’s Book Festival and Puffin Books were delighted to welcome writer, presenter and performer, Charlie Higson to Manchester Metropolitan University on Thursday 7th April. He was there to launch his new book ‘The Dead’ to an audience of more than 260 people – mainly made up of Year 7,8 and 9 pupils from Manchester schools.
Click here for more details.
- Magpie
On Tuesday 9th November 2010, MMU hosted the launch of a brand new network for Manchester teachers, cultural organisations and
creative practitioners. The Magpie CLN (Creative Learning Network) aims to provide support and links for teachers interested in
using the arts to teach all curriculum areas. More than 30 primary and secondary schools were represented and more than 20
cultural organisations and practitioners displayed information about their education programmes and opportunities for
collaboration. To join this network or for further information, see Manchester Education’s MEWAN website
- School Librarian Association Manchester
On Tuesday 2nd November 2010, MMU hosted the launch of a new network for Greater Manchester school librarians. SLAM (School
Librarian Association Manchester) is supported by the SLA (School Librarian Association). For further details about this network
contact: Rachel Hockey at r.hockey@chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk
- GM Aimhigher creative writing days for more than 400 pupils (2010)
The model for these days was a morning performance of Anjum Malik’s monologue ‘Nahid’, performed by professional actor Thushani Weersakeera, followed by a Q&A with the actor and the writer. Pupils then took part in writing workshops, where they explored their own stories.
- MAGPIE project (2010)
MMU writing students worked in a number of Manchester primary schools on a MAGPIE project, where they ran creative writing and art workshops with pupils connected to visits to local cultural venues. Outputs from these projects were featured in an exhibition at Manchester Town Hall in July. This was opened by popular writer, Frank Cottrell Boyce.
- Bolt-on Write-on (2010)
MMU students worked as writers-in-residence in 5 Bolton secondary schools to deliver this project. After a project launch at Turton High School in December featuring professional writers Sherry Ashworth, Mandy Coe, Zahid Hussain and Anjum Malik, a performance of ‘Nahid’ took place in all 5 schools. Following this, the MMU students worked alongside teachers to deliver a series of workshops, which encouraged pupils to produce writing in a variety of styles and on a variety of topics. The finished results were published in the ‘Bolt-on Write-on’ anthology.
- Manchester Children’s Book Festival. (July 2010)
Our biggest project this year has been the Manchester Children’s Book Festival.
This was the first of it’s kind in the North West of England and it will be a biennial event.
The festival featured events and activities for pupils, families, teachers and writers and a number of individual projects.
For full details about the 2010 Festival and for news about the next Festival in 2012, click here
- Aimhigher Creative Writing Day (January 13th, 2010)
50 Year 9 and 10 pupils pupils from the Albion School in Salford attended a performance of ‘Nahid’ a monologue written by Anjum Malik at MMU. The monologue, which tell Anjum’s own story of coming to England from Pakistan at age 12, in 1968 and address issues around family relationships, immigration, racism, religious intolerance and education was performed by actor Thushani Weerasekera.
After the performance, the pupils quizzed Anjum and Thushani on the story, on writing and on the acting process.
After a tour of the university and lunch pupils then took part in writing workshops led by Anjum and Kaye Tew (MMU Education Outreach Co-ordinator and creative writing tutor).
Having begun the day claiming not to enjoy writing the pupils produced some fantastic work and surprised themselves by how much they enjoyed it.
- Creative Writing Workshop (January 13th, 2010)
Pupils from four Manchester Primary schools, Barlow Hall, Birchfields, Crabb Lane and Oswald Road came into MMU to take part in a creative wriitng workshop led by MMU writers Iris Feindt, Ruth Donachie and Emily Birch.
The pupils enjoyed the afternoon, which they spent talking about their favourite books and producing entries for the All Write Wish You Were Here competition.
Over the next few weeks Iris, Emily and Ruth will go into the schools to work with pupils to produce writing that will feature in the Manchester Schools Art Exhibition in July at Manchester Town Hall.
- Lancasterian Special School Creative Writing Workshop (January 13th, 2010)
Pupils from Lancasterian Special School in Manchester came to MMU to participate in a creative writing workshop with MMU writer, Noel Fagan.
There was a real party atmosphere with pupils enjoying a story told by Noel and then creating their own characters.
Over the next few weeks Noel will go back and work in the school to help pupils produce their own story.
This will feature in the Manchester Schools Art Exhibition in July at Manchester Town Hall.
- Writers at MMU – Symposium on Censorship in Teen Fiction (December 4th, 2008)
An audience of teachers, librarians, writing students, writers and parents braved the dreadful weather to enjoy an inspiring evening of debate at Manchester Central Library on the topic of censorship in teen fiction.
The panel, who had plenty to say on the subject of censorship, were made up of teen writers Melvin Burgess and Anne Cassidy, literary agent agent Elizabeth Roy, librarians Lisa Powell and Jacob Hope, Head of English from Manchester High School for Girls, Helen Keegan and last, but definitely not least, two extremely articulate teen readers from Chorlton High School Niamh Gordon and Amy Spray.
Click here for more.
- All Write! 2008 Presentation Event (December 3rd, 2008)
140 young writers, parents and teachers attended the fourth All Write presentation event at MMU.
Young writers were presented with copies of the latest All Write anthology by published writers Anjum Malik, Melvin Burgess and Sherry Ashworth. All the writers were, as ever, impressed by the standard of writing.
Sherry Ashworth said “People ask what teenagers write about and I look through this anthology and say, everything! The range of subject matter and writing styles represented is so vast and varied it shows that teenagers can write, and write well, about a whole host of things.
Anjum Malik, who was involved in the competition this year for the first time was similarly impressed by the poetry included.
Melvin Burgess, who has supported the All Write competition since the first year it ran was delighted to present anthologies to the young writers and encouraged them to consider a career in writing as a possibility – especially after reading some of the work in the anthology.
This year again we were kindly sponsored by Samsung, who donated two mp3 players and two digital cameras as prizes for our best poet and best prose writer in both categories.
It wasn’t easy to select the winners but in the end Melvin and Sherry agreed on best the prose pieces and Anjum selected her favourite poems.
Our Year 9/11 Samsung poetry and prose winners were Maharishi pupil Raegan Wignall, for her poem, ‘Chocolate’, and Eaton Bank pupil Jamie Turnock who deserves a special mention for reading her short story ‘The Sun’s Got an E in Science’ beautifully.
Our Year 12/13 winners were Loreto student Alice Withers whose piece ‘A Snapshot of my Life’ was read very movingly by MMU acting student Daisy Marsden and Xaverian student Sean Gibson for his poem, ‘Red Sea’.
Click here for more.
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Paul Abbott talks to students from the Manchester College (November 14th, 2008)
BAFTA-winning TV writer of Shameless, Clocking Off and State of Play dropped in on MMU students in the English Department’s ‘Writing Series Drama’ course and students on the BTec Performing Arts course at The Manchester College to deliver a masterclass.
During the session, Paul shared his philosophy and approaches with the students and answered questions about his career, including his time as a Coronation Street writer and as a producer on Jimmy McGovern’s Cracker. Lecturer in scriptwriting Jane McNulty said: "It was a fantastic opportunity for all the students to get a glimpse of what it takes to be a truly great writer.
Paul was extremely generous with his time and in his advice to our aspiring writers. The session was inspiring."
Paul was impressed by the standard of questions both from the MMU students and from the visiting Manchester College students and, despite his hectic schedule, has offered to come back again next year.
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Aimhigher Writing Day for Year 11 pupils from Ladybridge High School, Bolton.(November 4th, 2008)
60 Year 11 pupils from Ladybridge High School visited MMU to work with writers Sherry Ashworth, Mandy Coe and Rachel Broady. Visiting pupils heard from all three writers about their careers and their writing before attending two writing workshops where they had the opportunity to have a go at being poets, journalists and novelists.
Some comments made by an attending teacher were:
“a really great day with some good work produced by the students”
“Assistants were really friendly and supportive and made our students feel really at ease.”,
“sessions were generally well planned, appropriate and allowed the students to produce some good outcomes.”
“pupils got a lot out of the day … they really liked being in the university surroundings”
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Enabling New Writing Projects (November 2008)
Teachers and writers who have participated in the latest Teaching Creative Writing Workshop and Enabling New Writing courses have devised a range of project ideas designed to encourage and celebrate new writing. The projects will take place over the coming months in schools, colleges and at MMU and will involve a range of pupils from primary and secondary schools, students from sixth form colleges and university students.
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English Department Year 12 Visit Day (July 2008)
More than 100 Year 12 students visited MMU’s English Department for our annual Visit Day which enables students considering studying aspects of English at HE to sample seminars, workshops and lectures. The day-long event, organized by English Department tutor Huw Jones was a great success according to both students and staff who came. MMU tutors and poets Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy treated everyone to a reading after lunch, which was an added bonus.
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Tameside Aimhigher Writing Day (June 4th 2008)
Around 60 Tameside Year 10 pupils attended a writing day at MMU that featured readings and workshops by poet, John Siddique, journalist Rachel Broady and television writer Jane McNulty. During the day pupils heard John Siddique read his poetry and writers Rachel and Jane talked about working as freelance writers and their careers as journalists and television writers respectively. Pupils were able to attend two workshops out of the three on offer and enjoyed being poets, journalists and television writers.
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Stockport Aimhigher Writing Day (June 11th 2008)
60 Stockport Year 10 pupils attended a writing day at MMU with writers Mandy Coe, Rachel Broady and Jane McNulty. Students worked with the writers in writing workshops, learning what it was like to be journalists, poets and television writers from people who do these jobs for living. Pupils enjoyed Jane’s ‘write a soap in two hours’ workshop and produced some wonderful writing.
- ‘Finding the Story’: a writing day for pupils from Grange School, Oldham (Friday, February 1st, 2008)
Click here for more details
- All Write! 2007 Celebration Event (December 12th, 2007)
The ACWE annual All Write! celebration event was attended by more than 200 pupils, teachers and parents.
At the event, competition winners were presented with copies of the All Write! 2007 anthology by writers, including Melvin Burgess, Sherry Ashworth and Mandy Coe.
Competition winners had their work printed in the All Write! 2007 anthology and the event was the first time they saw their published work.
Some winners read their work at the event and, in turns, amused and moved audience members and professional writers. We’d like to thank and congratulate those who were brave enough to read their work.
This event marked the end of the English Department’s 2007 outreach programme which hosted a number of reading and writing events that fed into the All Write! 2007 creative writing. Events included poetry, prose and journalism workshops led by writers.
The competition, open to anyone aged 14-16 or 16-19, saw over 400 entries from over 50 schools across the North West of England.
- Manchester International Festival writing workshops in schools (November 2007)
To continue the impact of the work begun by the ‘Slavery in our Time’ writing day held at MMU in June as part of the 2007 Manchester International Festival, the Festival funded follow up work at three more Manchester schools.
This time, performance poet Dreadlock Alien and journalist Rachel Broady visited schools to work with groups of pupils to explore issues of contemporary slavery through performance poetry and journalism workshops.
There was fantastic feedback from all three schools and the writers thoroughly enjoyed working with the young people concerned.
- Performance Poet, Dreadlock Alien, at Abraham Moss High School (boys) (14th November, 2007)
- Journalist, Rachel Broady, at Wright Robinson Sports College (15th November, 2007)
- Performance Poet, Dreadlock Alien, at Levenshulme High School for Girls (15th November, 2007) – click here for more details
- Man Booker Young Writers Pilot Workshops at MMU (5th and 6th July 2007)
On Thursday 5th July, 15 young writers from outlying British Islands, who had been selected to represent their schools in the Man Booker Young Writers pilot scheme came to MMU to meet up for the first time.
The students had taken part in a mentoring programme organized by Alison Waller from Bath Spa University and had produced short stories which were being considered for the Man Booker Young Writers prize.
(The Man Booker Young Writers pilot was the idea of Peter Brereton who is hopeful that a national scheme will be launched as a result.)
The writing workshops were funded and hosted by MMU and organized by ACWE’s Kaye Tew, Alison Waller and Peter Brereton with the help of Peter Riley from MMU’s Collaboration unit,
The students, aged between 16 and 19 arrived on Thursday evening and, after settling in to their student hall accommodation and exploring Manchester’s shopping facilities (mainly Primark!) they attended a performance of Monster at the Royal Exchange Theatre.
Friday’s programme was packed and consisted of tutorials and creative writing workshops led by writers Dinesh Allirajah and Nick Royle and informal sessions led by ACWE’s Kaye Tew and Mark Chambers.
Students also received detailed, one-to-one feedback on their work by Dinesh and Nick.
The young writers found this a particularly useful element of the programme and feedback about all the sessions was extremely positive and enthusiastic.
The two days were enjoyed by all, writers and students alike and Peter, Alison and Kaye would like to thank everyone involved.
The Man Booker Young Writers Prize has now been judged.
- MMU Aim Higher Summer School – Year 10 Writing Day (3rd July 2007)
A Writing Day for Year 10 pupils taking part in the MMU Aim Higher Summer School programme for Year 10 pupils was held on Tuesday 3rd July.
Writers Rachel Broady (journalist), John Siddique and Mandy Coe (poets) and Livi Michael (novelist) talked about their work and led workshops in creative writing. Pupils were able to attend two of the four workshops.
The MMU Summer School was organized by Peter Riley from MMU’s Collaboration Unit and Kaye Tew organized the writing day. The day was funded by Aim Higher.
- Year 12 Visit Day – Tuesday June 26th 2007
A Visit Day for Year 12 students interested in studying English at HE was held by the English Department at MMU on 26th June.
This day was run alongside the Writing Day.
Degree programmes available in the English Department were explained in detail and students took the opportunity to sample a range of seminars led by MMU tutors on some of the topics available for study.
The day was organized by Julie Wilkinson, James Draper and Kaye Tew and funded by the MMU English Department who would like to thank everyone involved.
Feedback was overwhelmingly positive and we plan to run the day again in 2008.
- Year 12 Writing Day – Tuesday June 26th 2007
Year 12 students interested in creative writing from 6 schools and colleges across the North West spent a day at MMU hearing from writers John Siddique, Rachel Broady and Jemma Kennedy about their work, attending writing workshops led by the writers and learning about the creative writing options available in MMU’s English Department.
Many of the pupils who attended subsequently submitted work they had produced for the All Write! competition. The day was enjoyed by all who attended. Some of the comments made on the feedback forms included:
"Thanks, a cool day …it has interested me in poetry …"
"very enjoyable and interesting."
" I will try to write more for myself after this … really good fun … discovered poetry, thanks …"
"I didn’t want to stay in Manchester but after seeing MMU today I am definitely going to consider it as an option”
The day was funded by ACWE and was organized by Kaye Tew who would like to thank all involved for a very enjoyable and productive day.
- Year 10 Writing Day (Thu 21st June 2007)
On Thursday June 21st around 50 Year 10 pupils from Wright Robinson High School, Glossopdale Community College and Flixton Girls School attended a writing day at MMU.
Poet John Siddique, novelist Livi Michael and dramatist Jemma Kennedy talked about their work and their lives as writers before leading writing workshops where pupils got the chance to try writing in two of the three genres on offer.
Pupils were invited to submit any work produced on the day for the All Write competition.
Pupils produced some excellent writing. Feedback was excellent and some of the comments made included:
“I now understand how to start a short story, inspirational … gave me quite a few ideas for coursework … I feel like I understand literature more … thanks for a great day … Fantastic … I got more out of it than I expected … The Dramatic Writing workshop was fun … Poetry showed me how to say my emotion out loud … Look out for my book when it’s published ‘The Maddalion Bride!” … I wrote a poem I’m quite proud of.”
The day was funded by ACWE and was organized by Kaye Tew, who would like to thank all involved for a very enjoyable and productive day.
- Year 9 workshops (Tue 19th June 2007)
Around 60 Year 9 pupils from 4 North Western schools attended a day of writing workshops at MMU.
Poet Mandy Coe, novelist Sherry Ashworth and journalist Rachel Broady led workshops that produced some wonderful pieces of writing.
Pupils also heard from the three writers who read from and talked about how they go about finding stories for their work.
Visiting pupils came from Hyde Clarendon VI Form College, Ashton VI Form College, Alder Community High School, Stamford High School, Astley Sports College and Littlemoss High School for Boys.
Pupils were able to select two from the three genres on offer.
The day was funded by ACWE and was organized by Kaye Tew, who would like to thank all involved for a very enjoyable and productive day.
- Slavery in our Time (Monday 11th June 2007)
A creative writing day on the them of ‘Slavery in our Time’ was hosted by ACWE and the Manchester International Festival here at MMU. Places at this event were free and available to Year 9 or Year 10 pupils in Manchester schools.
During the day, pupils heard from and work with poet Dreadlock Alien, dramatist Rachel Barnett and journalist Rachel Broady.
- Teaching Creative Writing Workshop (April 2007)
A second cohort of teachers and writers began this 9-week course on the 17th April
- Tameside Schools Aim Higher Day (27th March 2007)
Around fifty students from six Tameside schools enjoyed an ACWE writing day here at MMU. The theme for the day was ‘Finding the Story’.
- Allwrite! 2006 Celebration Event
(Wednesday, 22nd November)
The ACWE annual ‘All Write!’ celebration/presentation event took place in the Geoffrey Manton building, Oxford Road, was attended by over 200 pupils, teachers and parents. Competition winners were presented with copies of the ‘All Write! 2006’ anthology by writers including Melvin Burgess, Sherry Ashworth and Mandy Coe and courtesy of Arts Council England, North West, who again funded the competition.
Click here for further details.
For press coverage, see:
- Performing Literature Workshop Day (Friday, 3rd November, 2006)
Pupils whose work has been selected for inclusion in the All Write! 2006 anthology attended a day of voice and performance workshops at MMU with voice coach/directors Jane Vicary and Carol Bush.
Click here for further details
- Nathalie Handal visits Manchester Schools (October 12th and 13th, 2006)
In collaboration with the Festival of Palestinian Literature held at MMU on the weekend of October 13th as part of the Manchester Literature Festival, American-based writer Nathalie Handal visited three Manchester schools who are members of ACWE.
Click here for full text
- 24:7 Theatre Project
(24th – 30th July 2006)
In July of this year the 24:7 Theatre Festival linked with the Palace Theatre and MMU’s Association for Creative Writing & Education to offer the opportunity for a small group of young writers to take part in a week-long writing project.
Click here for full text + photographs
- Year 9/10 Writing Day (12th July 2006)
July 12th saw seventy-plus pupils from local schools take part in the last of our 2006 programme of writing days here at MMU
Click here for full text
- Year 12 Visit Day – (11th July 2006)
Over eighty Year 12 pupils came to visit the English Department at MMU on Tuesday, July 11th.
Click here for full text
- Meet the Author. Be the Author
(July 3rd, 2006)
One hundred and fifty pupils from eight schools were invited to attend a rather special day here at MMU on Monday July 3rd.
Click here for full text
- Year 9/10 Writing Day (June 26th, 2006)
Our Year 9 Writing Day featured readings by and workshops led by novelist Sherry Ashworth, poet Mandy Coe and journalist Rachel Broady.
Click here for full text
- Carol Ann Duffy – World’s Wife Seminar (Thu 11th May 2006)
Just over 100 students from Cheadle and Marple Sixth College attended a special seminar hosted by the Writing School at MMU on .
Multi-award-winning poet, Carol Ann Duffy read a selection of poems from The World’s Wife and answered questions from the students, who had been studying the collection for ‘A’ level English.
Click here for full text
- Tameside schools Aim Higher Day (Wed, 5th April 2006)
Fifty pupils from four Tameside schools joined together for yet another successful writing day here at MMU
Click here for full text
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Burnley Writing Day (Thu, 2nd March 2006)
50 year 8 pupils from Walshaw Girls School and Barden Boys in Burnley, and their teachers, enjoyed a writing day organised by ACWE and English Consultants at Lancashire LEA. at Burnley Football Club
Click here for full text.
- Creative Writing Workshop with Melvin Burgess (Wed, 25th January, 2006)
18 students whose work was published in All Write! 2005 attended a creative writing workshop with Melvin Burgess.
The workshop was funded by Arts Council England, North West as part of the MUSE Project and took place at MMU.
Students and teachers from 5 participating schools enjoyed Melvin’s workshop on updating traditional fairy tales.
Two further workshops are planned in order to accommodate pupils, unable to attend in January.
These will take place in June/July after GCSE and A-level examinations are over.
Please contact k.tew@mmu.ac.uk, if you wish to attend.
- ‘All Write’ celebration event: (November 9th, 2005)
The ‘Muse Project’ writing competition was judged over the summer and ‘All Write’ an anthology of the best (14-19) student writing submitted for the competition was published by MMU. We marked the end of the project with a wonderful celebration event where young writers were presented with copies of the book. This was attended by about 230 pupils and teachers, who had taken part in the competition.
Guest speakers included writers Paul Abbott, Melvin Burgess, Sherry Ashworth, Mandy Coe and Linda Chase, who talked a little about how they got started as writers and read from the anthology of students’ work.
Click here for full report on the event
For press coverage, see
See Publications Page for more information about the All Write anthology and the novel, written by Burnage High School for Boys-pupil, Ian Arnison-Phillips.
- ACWE Masterclasses & Workshops (June 2005)
The last of the series of MUSE Project masterclasses put on by the MMU Assocation for Creative Writing & English (ACWE) was held on June 21st in the Geoffrey Manton building.
The masterclasses have seen 53 people from 26 schools and 5 LEAs come into MMU to attend workshops in prose, poetry and script writing with novelist Paul Magrs, poet Linda Chase and dramatist Julie Wilkinson.
Click here for full text
- Association for Creative Writing & Education Launch: (April 26th 2005)
At a very entertaining and well attended event to celebrate the launch of the Manchester Metropolitan University Association for Creative Writing and Education (ACWE), an audience of about a hundred English teachers, tutors and LEA advisors from across the North West heard Carol Ann Duffy and other MMU English staff and students read and perform their work.
The launch took place at MMU’s Geoffrey Manton building on Tuesday, 26th April.
Professor Janet Beer, Dean of the Faculty, introduced the evening and, in between readings and performances, guests heard details of the Association’s planned programme of events for the coming year from organisers, Alf Louvre and Kaye Tew.
Click here for full text
- The Voice of the Urban Context: a writers’ conference for Manchester teachers
( March 10th – 12th 2005)
The ‘Voice of the Urban Context’ conference was held at the Victoria and Albert Hotel in Manchester.
It was funded by the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and hosted by Manchester Education Partnership in collaboration with MMU.
Writers who ran workshops were: Paul Abbott, Danny Brocklehurst, Carol-Ann Duffy, Melvin Burgess, Paul Magrs, Jeffrey Wainwright, Mike Nally and Lucy Burke.
The conference was attended by approximately 40 Lead Writing teachers from Manchester schools.
Click here for full text