Pupils at Blackburn’s Beardwood Humanities College have created a “literary time capsule” by publishing their own book  after working with professional writers.

Journalist Jane Gallagher and poet Norman Warwick spent ten weeks as writers in residence with pupils in a bid to raise literacy standards across the school.

More than 90 pupils took part in a series of fun fast-paced writing workshops which examined a range of writing skills from journalism to poetry, diary-keeping, song-writing and much more.

The resultant writing has now been collated into a collection of work entitled “Voices of Beardwood” which provides a snapshot of the lives, hopes and dreams of a group of Lancashire teenagers.

Jane Gallagher said: “When I heard that Beardwood College was due to close I thought it fitting that we used the project to create a literary time capsule for the pupils to look back on in years to come.”

The project was jointly funded by the school and Curious Minds, an organisation which explores creative solutions to raising educational standards.

Nafisa Patel, Director of English at Beardwood Humanities College commissioned the project to raise literacy standards across the school.

She said: “The pupils now feel more confident, enthused and passionate about English. It is a welcome relief to see pupils engaged and expressing themselves freely.”

Imityaz Hajat, a year 9 pupil at Beardwood College  who took part in the project said: “I think this book is a great idea as it brings together the views of the pupils. It was a great challenge and I have really enjoyed working with both Jane and Norman. They have improved our English skills and made us better writers.”