Thursby Thursday, Burnley FC

from http://www.hlss.mmu.ac.uk/english/news/articles/127/

Burnley kids are ‘All Write!’
Fifty Year 8 (12/13 year old) pupils from two Burnley secondary schools enjoyed a writing day organised by ACWE (Association for Creative Writing & English), the English Department’s outreach programme. The day was held at Burnley Football Club and hosted by Lancashire LEA.
In September, as part of a major re-development of Burnley secondary education (to encourage greater academic achievement and to foster ethnic integration) eight secondary schools are to close and five new schools will be opened. Both Walshaw and Barden schools will merge to form the brand new ‘Sir John Thursby School’. The writing day, ‘Thursby Thursday’, was the first time that pupils from the two schools had ever worked together. The aim of the day was to help pupils get to know each other, and allow them to reflect on memories and new beginnings through a series of creative writing workshops.
During the day pupils got to know local Burnley poet Claire Shaw (the second biggest baby ever to be born in Burnley!), Hebden Bridge-based poet, John Siddique and Manchester novelist, Melvin Burgess who has been involved in the English Department’s outreach programme since last year. The three writers led creative writing workshops with the youngsters throughout the day, signed autographs and were generally treated like pop-stars. Some wonderful poems and story outlines were produced and pupils have been encouraged to submit them to ACWE’s All Write! 2006 competition. The day ended with readings from the three writers and pupils were given copies of All Write! 2005 as a memento of the day.