IMPACT REPORT 2019/20 What I personally wish “this century to see [is] a balance of stories where every people will be able to contribute to a definition of themselves, where we are not victims of other people's accounts. – CHINUA ACHEBE FOREWARD This has been a year cut in two: before and after the pandemic. In the first half of the year, First Story was working in 52 schools, over four regions, delivering our Young Writers Programme. In December 2019, 330 students and 18 professional writers travelled to Cambridge University for our Young Writers' Festival and, in March 2020, schools across London gathered at Greenwich University to write together. Our live events are the summit of the First Story experience; anyone at them sees instantly how excited students are to write and how developing their own voice has brought new confidence. When schools closed on 20 March 2020, most First Story programmes in schools were drawing to a natural close; students had shared ideas for producing the anthology and selected their best work. Then began the second half of the year. Like everyone else, First Story had to adapt quickly to a challenging new world. Writers, students and teachers collaborated online to finish anthologies. Together with our partners, we took National Writing Day entirely online. Over 100,000 young people used our resources and took part in our #247Challenge. Writing together was a way of making a community when everyone was isolated in lockdown. Our virtual residential week brought students together from across the country for a week of intensive writing. You will read their enthusiasm in this report. Many of the communities we work with have been severely affected by the pandemic. Limited access to online learning, health issues, and school closures have widened the attainment gap—now an estimated 36 per cent. In this context, we know our Young Writers Programme has much to offer. Recovery from the effects of the pandemic will not be a quick fix. First Story builds the resilience and skills essential to increase life chances for disadvantaged young people. We will continue to work in partner schools in 2020/21, navigating with them our way through a very tough environment. Huge thanks to everyone who makes this happen: first and foremost our writers and teachers, who work with energy, expertise and dexterity; our funders, without whom none of this would be possible; and our small and committed team, who give so much of themselves. 2019/20 has highlighted the value of our work for young people; we are looking forward to making an even greater impact next year. Antonia Byatt Chief Executive 2 WHAT WE DO We’re England’s leading creative writing charity for young people. Our flagship Young Writers Programme pairs professional authors with state secondary schools serving low income communities, where they work intensively with students and teachers to develop creativity, confidence, and ability. Our extracurricular enrichment provision — which includes writing workshops, events, competitions, and published anthologies — empowers young people to discover and develop their own unique voices and, in doing so, thrive in education and beyond. First Story is committed to practically addressing educational inequalities and the opportunity gap faced by young people from less advantaged backgrounds. We work exclusively in communities with high levels of socioeconomic inequality, where we are providing a critical link between local schools, arts organisations, higher education institutions, and the commercial sector. IMPACT OF COVID-19 In March 2020, schools in England closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The timing of the first lockdown only minimally disrupted delivery of our 2019/20 programmes. By spring term, our participants are usually turning their attention to editing their own best pieces of writing, for inclusion in their group's published anthology. Most of our Writers-in-Residence were able to continue producing manuscripts by communicating with students and teachers over email. However, our 2019/20 anthology production process was impacted somewhat, with printing delayed for several of the year's new publications. Inevitably, the majority of schools were unable, not least due to social distancing restrictions, to hold celebratory book launch events as usual in the summer term. Additionally, three of First Story’s local 'Connect' events, plus live activities scheduled for June’s National Writing Day, and the summer’s Arvon residential week, all had to be cancelled. ADAPTING TO DIGITAL We were quick to adapt our provision and offer digital alternatives wherever viable. The 2019/20 summer residential became a (hugely successful!) virtual week, delivered via the Zoom platform. All National Writing Day activities also moved online. We consulted extensively with partner schools in the first months of lockdown, with invaluable teachers' feedback shaping the development of our blended learning offer. FINANCIAL IMPACT Many trusts and foundations changed their grant-making criteria in response to the pandemic, which meant we lost out on some expected voluntary income in 2019/20. We were also forced to cancel a planned fundraising event in March. Some of First Story's core staff were briefly furloughed through the Job Retention Scheme, helping to mitigate the impact of lost funds. Thankfully, at a time of unprecedented crisis for the arts sector, we were able to continue supporting our community of professional writers by providing a vital source of income. EVALUATION DATA First Story’s Theory of Change sees participants in our intensive Young Writers Programme progress along three primary outcome pathways: increased confidence, enhanced creativity, and improved writing ability. Start- and end-point surveys, carried out in schools, are usually how we assess young people’s progress in these areas. However, as the lockdown closed schools from March to the end of the academic year, we were unable to carry out our evaluation as normal. Although we moved evaluation online, regrettably too few surveys were completed to provide meaningful impact data for this exceptional year. 4 4 2019/20 E AT A GLANCE R I H S T We continued to provide K residencies in four regions S R across England, where we E worked intensively in O W Y 52PARTNER 1,044 SCHOOLS YOUNG PEOPLE took part in our flagship YOUNG WRITERS E PROGRAMME R I H S K T R S O A E Y 6MORE Y0OUNG P0EOPLE BENEFITED FROM PARTICIPATION IN WHOLE SCHOOL ACTIVITIES SUCH AS ASSEMBLIES, EVENTS, ANTHOLOGY LAUNCHES & COMPETITIONS WE ORGANISED SKILLS SHARING 78 DAYS 5 FOR OUR TEACHERS RECEIVED FREE TEACHERS CPD & WRITERS TRAINING TOOK PART LONDON IN OUR 16 FIRST STUDENTS EVER VIRTUAL RESIDENTIAL WE PUBLISHED OVER 46 WRITERS ALUMNI DELIVERED MORE THAN WERE AWARDED 3,000 RATHBONES STORIES & POEMS IN 1,200 (with more FOLIO titles to be 5PRIZE HOURS published MENTORSHIPS in autumn OF WORKSHOPS 42term 20/21) ANTHOLOGIES 327 EAST YOUNG PEOPLE ATTENDED OUR MIDLANDS YOUNG WRITERS' FESTIVAL 6 ANTHOLOGIES At the heart of our Young Writers Programme, a consistent group of students work together over an academic year, guided and supported by their Writer-in- Residence, to create a published anthology. Our young writers are empowered throughout the production process, from selecting and editing their own best pieces for inclusion, to choosing the anthology's title and contributing to its cover design. First Story's anthologies are produced to a high professional standard; each has an ISBN, with a copy sent to the British Library. We published 42 new titles during 2019/20. Although some anthologies had to be delayed due to the pandemic, we expect all 2019/20 First Story groups to see their work in print by early in 2021. LAUNCH EVENTS As traditional book launch events became difficult to stage in this exceptional year, some of our partner schools came up with alternative ways to celebrate their students' achievement as newly published authors. In London, Chelsea Academy launched its anthology as part of an assembly. Haven High in Boston held a live Facebook event. Addey and Stanhope school in London and The Winstanley School in Leicester both drew on expertise from other departments in their schools, recording and editing launch films, which they shared on social media for parents and students to enjoy. Cranford Community College and Saint Gabriel's College, both in London, went ahead with in-person events, albeit strictly following social distancing rules. 7 xx COMPETITIONS Some 240 young people entered our two national short-form creative writing competitions during 2019/20 — Six Word Story in the autumn term and 100 Word Story in the spring. Our Six Word Story winner was selected and announced by the celebrated YA author, Juno Dawson, at December's Young Writers' Festival, where Juno said of the winning entry — by Samuel Byrne from Djanogly City Academy in Nottingham — “Sometimes, simple can be very effective. Samuel’s entry was smart and stylish, but also coldly brutal, Man steals drugs, drugs steal man. which felt appropriate given the subject matter.” We piloted a new way to showcase the Salena Godden, Joe Dunthorne, Bridget work of our 12 Six Word Story finalists Minamore, Tracy Chevalier, Caroline this year. Each of the 12 shortlisted Bird, Damian Barr, Katie Thistleton and stories was performed by a well-known Priya O’Shea. writer, as a video 'selfie', published on Twitter and Instagram. Our 12 readers It was another strong year for our 100 were: Juno Dawson, Nikesh Shukla, Max Word Story competition too. This Porter, Tom Holland, year's overall winner, Daisy Benn, from Longcroft School in Beverley, was announced in March 2020 — selected as usual by a judging panel of editors at our competition partners, Vintage. ‘Boy’ is rich in imagery and is crazily inventive. The three-part structure documents a “transformation that at first glance reads almost like a fairy tale.