Year 8 soap-writing workshop at Ministry of Stories

Every Tuesday afternoon in January seventeen Year 8 students were involved in a fascinating soap-writing workshop at the Ministry of Stories in Hoxton Street, London, N1. The project was aimed at enabling the students to develop their imagination, increase their abilities in communication and improve their confidence. 

Each session had a clear purpose, ranging from creating the setting for an episode, developing characters and their relationships - to creating different scenes within an episode and running through a complete episode. Students worked mainly in small groups with volunteer writers and ex-English teachers, in a relaxed and fun-filled atmosphere. They were amazed to see how, week by week, gradually but surely, their ideas were developing into a complete and exciting episode - with realistic characters and events.

The climax of the whole experience was working, on the last day, with one of the lead writers for East Enders, Pete Lawson. During that session and under his guidance, the scripts were completed and we had a reading of the whole episode by four professional actors. It was incredible. Students could see their work 'come alive'. The whole experience was a great success; we would like to thank Ministry of Stories for offering us the opportunity to participate in the soap-writing workshops. We look forward to working them in the near future.