PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Want to book The Bank for a morning of ultimate creative writing? Just choose a workshop from the list on the right and click on it. All are fast-paced, outcome driven and addictive workshops, a great way to fire up every child and get them buzzing about writing. You might want a workshop to kick off a new term, or to introduce a new topic, a concept, or tighten up a text. The stand-alone package is key to the working ideology of the charity and each will deliver a boost in writing enthusiasm across a whole class group. These workshops are, in microcosm, what we do. We provide opportunities, support and encouragement to allow young people to create stories. But they don’t need to be stand alone, they can be used as the stimulus for further sessions.Take a look in the library to see past examples of Character Creation and Storymaking workshops.
Quote from primary school teacher after a session
“I think it's been really helpful in terms of sparking joy from the children for the writing, because sometimes with all of the curriculum stuff, that joy that children should get and can get from their writing can get a bit lost and forgotten about in the classroom. So I think it's been really useful thing for me and for them to be reminded about, that actually, writing is supposed to be a fun thing. You know, I enjoy writing. They can be enjoying writing.
In fact, today a child has just spent the weekend writing their own story. I don't think that would have happened had it not been for the Bank of Dreams & Nightmares coming in, because there's a lot of pressure in the classroom with the punctuation being perfect, the spelling being perfect. She's just gone ahead, she's got a journal, she's written it, and she wants me to read it.
So it's just it's just sparked that creativity and that joy. “
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Welcome to the Town of Dreams and Nightmares. Population unknown.
Help The Bank of Dreams and Nightmares uncover the secrets and backstories of the residents of this new town, as we work through character creation and description over the course of a mornings workshop. The group will identify what makes an interesting character in stories they already know, create their own brand new character and gradually populate this curious town.
Perfect for year 3 students.
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Unleashing the writer inside every child! We will create an awesome story with the class, as a group, in just two hours. This fast paced, interactive session lets the group work as a team to write one shared story up to a cliffhanger, before helping each writer to finish the story off individually. As the story is created our volunteer illustrator will sketch the story, and at the end of the session we will print and bind a storybook for each child to take home.
Perfect for year 3 students
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It’s time to get political! Are you ready to change hearts and minds? Our speech-writing workshop takes a single issue and gets the children debating. Over the course of two hours, we will give the group the persuasive techniques they need to convince you to see it their way. Each child will become their own campaign manager, champion their cause, then write and deliver the speech that will seal the argument, and maybe, just maybe, change the world!
Perfect for year 4 students.
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Where do you turn when you don’t know what to do? Ever needed to know how to escape from a dragon’s lair? Ever found yourself having to negotiate with invading aliens? Well, worry no-more as over the course of this fast-paced, interactive two hour workshop, the group will write instructions for how to solve these and all manner of of other day-to-day or out-of-this-world problems. Working with our team of writing mentors, the group will come up with nothing less than the ULTIMATE survival guide!
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Do you have a specific topic or area of writing your school wants to focus on. Talk to us and we can devise a longer term workshop with you. In the past we have created a food inspired collection of stories, poetry anthologies and an Intergenerational penpals project. Get in touch and we can hatch a plan. See some past projects HERE
Perfect for year 5 or 6 students
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We will create a published anthology of short stories for the whole class. Highlighting how far they have come with their creative writing and celebrated with a book launch. This is a 5 week workshop and please email us if you are interested.
We likke to keep this workshop for years 5 and 6 only.
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This is where it gets really interesting and potentially has the biggest impact. Work with us over the course of the whole academic year to program in all the workshops. This will allow us to track progression for each individual child and work closely with the class teacher in areas that may need improvement. Real depth and real results. Plus we offer a discounted rate for progression booking.