Supported by our Programme and Partnerships Managers in the North, local writers work with young people in secondary schools across West Yorkshire, East Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.
First Story dignified our students’ voices. They soon began to believe that despite often troubled relationships with education, their stories mattered. They mattered.
Reading their efforts aloud began to fill up chasms of low confidence and negative self-belief, with worthiness and pride…Students began to realise that their work didn’t have to be perfect. It just had to be their own, each word symbolising a record of achievement and a step closer to academic success.
Lisa Thompson-Gwede, lead teacher at Springwell Academy leeds
North of England programmes funded by
North Advisory Group
We’re grateful to benefit from the breadth of regional knowledge and expertise provided by our volunteer advisors in the North of England. The group, representing arts, education and youth perspectives, meets quarterly to inform our work in the region.
Imran Hafeez
Hub Manager, Bradford Stories, National Literacy Trust
Jennifer Webb
Assistant Principal for Teaching and Learning, Trinity Academy Cathedral and founder of FunkyPedagogy
Ivan Wadeson
Executive Director Manchester City of Literature
Habiba Desai
Co-Founder and Director, Fox and Windmill
John McAuliffe
Co-Director at the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, The University of Manchester
Kaye Tew
Director of the Manchester Children’s Book Festival
Paul Farley
FRSL, poet, writer and broadcaster
Carol Gormley
Teach First Director for Yorkshire and the Humber
Rachel Connor
Novelist, playwright, writing mentor, certified coach, former Director of Creative Writing at Leeds Beckett University’
Alumni voices
Habiba Desai, Bradford
First Story has had a role to play in each application I’ve submitted, in every single job and experience since. Let me say, the First Story programme makes a huge difference.
Habiba took part in the Young Writers Programme at Carlton Bolling College in Bradford in 2013/14. She went on to study English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Huddersfield. Since graduating she has held roles at Vintage, Penguin, Waterstones and the Bradford Literature Festival. Habiba is the Co-Founder of Fox and Windmill Books, an independent publishing company for South Asian British writers in the North.
North of England stories
Get in touch
Andy Hill
Programme & Partnerships Manager, West Yorkshire
Andy supports our programmes across the North with a current focus in West Yorkshire. Over the past 15 years he has come to specialise in arts and cultural engagement across the education sector. His passion lies in finding ways to remove barriers and build community spaces where young people can thrive; he has found creative writing to be one of the best ways to achieve this.
