CHILDREN across Oxford’s estates have been letting their imagination run riot with a creative writing course.

Charity Over and Above the Line went into schools in Blackbird Leys, Barton and Rose Hill to encourage creativity and a love of writing.

More than 70 children have taken part in the project, funded by a Youth Ambition grant from Oxford City Council, since January.

Lead tutor Noel White said: “Young people are not being given the chance to experiment enough with that part of their imagination in the curriculum.

“We work with children who have been identified that they can do much better if they are given more encouragement and also young people who might be struggling with English or other areas of their school work.

“It’s a chance for them to re-engage with learning.”

The Oxford graduate said: “Creative writing is a fantastic skill for anyone to have and it has a huge knock-on effect in other areas of learning in schools.

“It brings in all parts of children’s brains: intelligence, discipline, working with other people, and so on.

“Children take more responsibility for their own work and they become very good in peer-to-peer mentoring and communicating with each other.

“They all produced original pieces of creative writing work.

“This is the single biggest project we’ve ever done in Oxford or anywhere else.”

Now the children’s stories will be uploaded to the project’s website, which Mr White hopes will become an online resource for teachers and young writers.

Leon Kiarie, from Bayards Hill Primary School, said: “I like writing and really hope I get to do more again soon.

“I can’t wait to see my story on the website.”

The 10-year-old read his story out on stage at a ceremony on Saturday ((18/4)) to celebrate the end of the scheme and what the participants have achieved.

He said: “I really enjoyed writing my story and getting to go up on stage was really cool.”

As well as children reading their own work, the event saw professional writer and storyteller Amabel Clarke performing their work to an audience of family and friends.

Rose Hill Primary School pupil Mimi Agelo said: “I wrote a story about how to survive bullying and I am happy it will be on the website.

The 10-year-old said: “I hope it will help others, I would be really happy if it did.”

Oxford Academy pupil Max Butler, 11, added: “I wasn’t really into writing before this but I liked doing this because it let me use my imagination.

“I’m quite happy with my story and want to write more.”

For more information visit oalproject.org.uk or email info@oalproject.org.uk