Online courses for young people
Our online courses offer young people the time to explore writing through fun, engaging prompts and activities – whether it’s poetry, prose or any other kind of writing they want to develop!
Our online courses offer young people the time to explore writing through fun, engaging prompts and activities – whether it’s poetry, prose or any other kind of writing they want to develop!
If you were going to write a poem to a dinosaur, what would you say? How would you fill a museum so that people in the future knew all about us? Can you create the biggest of stories using the smallest details?
Created for Key Stage 2 (years 4-6) these three workshops have been designed by specialist tutors with the support of National Centre for Writing and Young Norfolk Arts. You can work through each one start to finish, with your child or class, or you can pick and mix different activities from each as fun creative lesson starters or extension activities.
Designed for primary school writers aged 6 and above, these fun and imaginative prompts help parents and teachers create a sense of excitement about creative writing.
Tutor Isabelle King explains how to create characters and memorable settings, encouraging young writers to then explore their stories further.
These short exercises are suitable for children to work through on their own or in a group setting. We recommend a parent or teacher being present to help.
How do you embrace the ‘weird’ in your writing? It’s time to break the rules and take some risks…
In this course for 13-17 year olds, we’ll explore how you approach writing in new ways, how you can unlock the weird in your writing and how you can look to other forms of art for inspiration. We’ll do some reading, lots of writing and break some writing rules too!
This course is entirely free! You can choose to preview or enrol on the course on our learning portal:
Learn how to create all sorts of interesting characters, exploring helpful tips along the way…
In this course with Cara Marks, you’ll learn all about what makes characters interesting and realistic. By the end of the course, you’ll have created a character profile for an interesting character which you can use in your own stories.
This course is entirely free and is available for 10-12 year olds and 13-17 year olds. Choose your age group to visit our courses portal and get started:
Are you ready to go on an Iron Age adventure? In this course for 10-12 year olds you will imagine that you have stepped back in time to Ancient Britain…
The Romans rule the land. You are part of the Iceni who live in the East of England, a little tribe who are causing a lot of trouble. The Iceni have risen up in rebellion against the Roman rule – they don’t like getting told what to do by the Romans. The leader of the Iceni is a fierce and fiery woman called Boudica. In the evenings, Stories are often shared around a fire, an important community activity to entertain and inspire. This is where you come in. You are the Star Storyteller of the Iceni.
This course is entirely free and is available for 10-12-year-olds. You can start creating your story on our portal:
How do you turn emotion into writing? Can we find possibility in times of emergency?
There are lots of strange and difficult things happening in the world at the moment. In this course for 13-17 year olds, Daisy Henwood is going to show you how writing can help you navigate your feelings and create something positive and active. We’ll look at the different ways you might use writing to generate feelings of hope and to imagine a better future.
This course is entirely free! You can choose to preview or enrol on the course on our learning portal:
Do you have a superpower? Everyone has something they’re really good at, no matter how big or small…
In this course for 9-12 year olds, Daisy Henwood will help you create your own superhero story. Using the small things that you’re really great at (picking a banana at its exact ripeness, or knowing the exact moment your friend needs a hug), you’ll build your own superhero character profile – which you can then use to write your own superhero story.
This course is entirely free! You can choose to preview or enrol on the course on our learning portal:
Poems, stories, songs and words are all capable of transporting us to new worlds, seeing things differently or of expressing ourselves in ways we might not have thought possible…
In this course for 9-12 year olds, we’ll explore how you can start to tap into the magic of language, find out some of the things you can do with words, have fun, and do lots of writing exercises and games too! Everyone has words inside of them and with just a little help, we can all write stories or poems from thin air.
This course is entirely free! You can start casting your own language spells on our portal:
Do you love to draw and write? Are you looking for creative ways to explore your feelings?
In this course for 13-17 year olds, Lewis Buxton will show you how to make big abstract emotions specific and tangible. Through a mixture of drawing and writing you will learn how to centre emotions in the body, craft metaphors, write freely and without inhibition and finally read two poems and use them as a basis to write a poem from your own feelings and experiences.The key thing to take away from this course is that you and your experience of the world is important and worth writing about.
This course is entirely free! You can choose to preview or enrol on the course on our learning portal:
In this course for 9-12 -year-olds, Lewis Buxton is going to introduce you to poetry, why he thinks it’s great and how it can help you express big abstract emotions in concise, specific ways.Do you love making up stories? How about stories with animals, court jesters and a magnificent Queen? Join us on an adventure back in time to the Tudor theatre …
In this course, children’s author Isabelle King will teach you how to create a Tudor inspired story to be performed in front of Queen Elizabeth I and her dog. At the end of the workshop you will have created a character, setting, poem, title and start of your own amazing story.
You can keep writing your story in your own time after the workshop. You will also have uncovered the name of the Queen’s dog and received a poster to design as a front cover from your story.
This course is entirely free and is available for 6-9-year-olds. You can start creating your story on our portal:
Ever wanted to have a go at writing your own songs? Maybe you don’t play an instrument… perhaps you don’t have the confidence to sing. This online course is perfect for you!
Your course tutor is Norwich based singer-songwriter Jess Morgan – you can find her songs on Spotify here. Jess has worked as singer songwriter for more than ten years – writing songs and touring very small, very dark folk music clubs all over the world… and just once, the O2 Arena.
This course is entirely free and is available for 9-12 year olds and 13-17 year olds. Choose your age group to visit our courses portal and get started:
You can listen to Jess’ work on Spotify:
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