Writings from Astrea Academy Sheffield

From 2018 to 2020 Grimm & Co’s staff and artists worked with groups of young people at Astrea Academy Sheffield.  We travelled to their school each week to deliver exciting and inspiring creative writing sessions. We have taken part in all sorts of projects together, such as:

  • A public exhibition of the students’ creative work, in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University.
  • A collaboration with University College Rotherham, who illustrated and produced an anthology of amazing poetry written by the young people.
  • A writing for radio project inspired by our friends at the Ministry of Stories, London.

In 2019, the Ministry worked with BBC History to create a poetry project which celebrated the anniversary of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. We were excited to create something similar with Year Seven and Eight Astrea Academy students to creatively celebrate their community alongside artists Emily H and Lee. The young people created maps and sound recordings inspired by their area.  In addition, they poetically reflected on the communities they came from. These wonderful stories gave a creative insight into the young people’s worlds.

BBC Radio Sheffield broadcast the resulting recordings in May 2020.

A big thank you to everyone who has supported our work with Astrea Academy Sheffield, including the school’s wonderful staff and our associate artists Emily H and Emily T.  We’re also incredibly grateful to sound artist Lee, Hugh at Sheffield Hallam University, Tracey and the team at University College Rotherham, our fabulous volunteer story mentors – and, of course, the young writers themselves.

Astrea Academy student reading from a card labelled Bourbon biscuitGrimm & Co often work with schools and other organisations to develop and deliver bespoke writing programmes for children and young people. Do you want to find out more? Email schools@grimmandco.co.uk or visit our out of schools activity page.