August 2025 Newsletter
Hello! Summer is in full swing and we've got so many stories to share with you about what we've been up to at Little Green Pig! A bumper summer edition of news this month for you as we reflect on last term's achievements and look forward to what we've got planned after the break...
Our After School Club writers took lots of inspiration from nature and the outdoors throughout the summer term. Young writers' words have been released into the wild from writing on beach pebbles to designing t-shirts to wear. Solving mysteries along Brighton's pier, exploring coastal erosion through collage in Eastbourne, and taking inspiration from bugs and butterflies in Worthing. We share a selection of the children and young people's creative work to watch and read in this edition. Read on!
Looking for something for 11-18 year olds to get involved in? We have launched our Young Writers Collective website and our debut Summer Creative Writing Challenge this month. An exciting next step for this age group to take part!
There's updates from our Arts Council England supported Story Journeys projects including stories about a haunted hotel and our latest Transitions project with Year 6 children.
Our team have also enjoyed connecting with other international writing centres this summer too, including visiting an alien supermarket at Sweden's Ministry of Stories and interactive installations at Shoreditch's Ministry of Stories!
Scroll on to discover our latest stories and how you can get involved in our next chapters too...
Photo 1: children's paintings of bugs and butterflies on wooden log discs at BugCycle Garden. Photo 2: a child holds a large rock with their handwriting on about the sea. Photo 3: four children in school uniform cast their hands in bowls of pink slime. Photo 4: a child proudly smiling holds up a book they have created. Photo 5: a screenprinted big cat in blue and orange
THE YOUNG WRITERS COLLECTIVE WEBSITE LAUNCHES!
Writers aged 11 to 18 can now sign up online to join Young Writers Collective via our newly launched digital space dedicated to this older age group. It's free to join and is an opportunity for young people in Sussex to meet other writers, connect with each other creatively, develop their skills and express themselves.
The Young Writers Collective is also excited to announce our first ever Summer Writing Challenge!
Collective members voted and chose the theme 'The Sun' and the challenge is now officially open for young people to submit their work for publication in our next digital anthology. Please do share with any 11 to 18 year olds!
Sign up to Young Writers Collective and check out the new site here!
CREATIVE SHOWCASE FROM OUR YOUNG WRITERS
During the Summer Term, the children and young people were busy creating publications, performances, sculptures, music videos and more! We packed in plenty of trips to inspire the clubs too, from museums and hotels to beaches along the Sussex coast from Eastbourne to Worthing.
Bugs, butterflies and birds inspired Worthing club's words!
If you go down to BugCycle Community Garden in Beach House Park, look out for our words in the wild! You'll find nature poetry and artwork installed in the pagoda and on fences, created by children from The Laurels Primary School after school club.
During two workshops to the garden with Creative Waves Community Arts, children created nature poems and paintings with a focus on the small details of nature that we sometimes overlook. Made possible thanks to funding from Arts Council England, the Fonthill Foundation and Friarsgate Trust.
If you can't make it to Worthing, you can have a peek here too at Nature's Tiny Treasures online here.
Would you fancy a holiday at The Mysterious Grand Ideas Hotel?
Inside a spooky and strange old hotel by the sea reside some rather peculiar characters. From the staff to the guests, you'll never guess who you'll find behind each hotel room door!
Inspired by a special visit and tour around Eastbourne's Grand Hotel, the club conjured up characters from their imaginations with writer Emma Joy Edwards, comedian/writer/illustrator Jo Neary and the Story Mentors. Props like costumes, keys and junk modelling were also used to help develop their original ideas.
Discover the children's descriptions of the different hotel rooms and curious characters who dwell there online here.
The Ministry of Mystery challenges our club code crackers...
All three Brighton after school clubs were contacted by a mysterious agency this summer, via messages hidden in codes, bottles and library books.
After deciphering codes and creating hidden haikus, the children took trips to Palace Pier where they encountered a series of curious characters from a fortune teller to a fisher.
Read all about it in a newspaper here!
Poetry zine explores the theme of time
Writer Roy McFarlane and mentors returned to Longhill High School for a series of workshops focussing on the concept of "time" as inspiration for their latest zine. The poetry will soon feature in a school playground mural by Little Green Pig team too.
Discover poems describing dusk til dawn, visions of the future, and musings on how to best use the limited time we have in life here.
"The opportunity Little Green Pig has given our students to express themselves through poetry has been amazing. They'll look back upon it as one of their most significant school experiences."
Head of English & Media teacher at Longhill High School
PART OF ME: WATCH A MUSIC VIDEO CREATED BY YEAR 6 CREATIVES
The transition from primary to secondary school can be filled with excitement and nerves so for the fifth time, Little Green Pig ran a creative 4 week project to support the most vulnerable children with this move. Partnering with Northbrook College and The Laurels Primary School in Worthing, a class of Year 6 children expressed their hopes and dreams for their futures in Year 7 and beyond through the mediums of plaster cast artworks and rap. For a taste of what they created with professional propmaker Jacques Griffiths, Student Ambassadors and musician/rapper Louie Levack from AudioActive, WATCH THE MUSIC VIDEO "PART OF ME" HERE.
LITTLE GREEN PIG TEAM UPDATES
"I’m Sophie, the current Evaluation and Communications intern at Little Green Pig.
For the past couple of months, I’ve been working on improving our feedback and evaluation format, supporting fundraising efforts, and helping out at our clubs as they wrap up for summer. Some highlights of my time here have been taking part in the trip to Brighton Palace Pier to unveil the Ministry of Misery, getting the opportunity to learn about the charity sector in-depth, and meeting all the talented and passionate young people who make Little Green Pig what it is today.
As my time at Little Green Pig comes to an end, I would like to thank the amazing team here for giving me such a warm welcome and showing me the ropes.
Seeing Little Green Pig’s work in person has been amazing and I know I would’ve absolutely loved to go to a club like this when I was a kid."
An anthology by our volunteers
We're so lucky to have an amazing team of Story Mentor and Illustrator Mentor volunteers. They each bring their own creative flair to our clubs and projects, sharing their skills and encouraging our young writers to express themselves in new and surprising ways. Just as they generously give their time and energy, it’s important for our mentors to be given opportunities to nurture their own creativity.
This year, during Volunteers’ Week, we ran a workshop for mentors to explore the theme ‘What Creativity Means To Me’. Through a series of mindful drawing and writing activities they each created a mixed-media collage and it’s our pleasure to share these in the first Little Green Pig volunteer anthology.
Curious to volunteer for us? Find out more here.
Swapping ideas in Stockholm!
Did you know that Little Green Pig is part of The International Alliance of Youth Writing Centres? This July, Nicky and Nikki from our staff team enjoyed attending a conference to connect with colleagues from across the globe, hosted by Stockholm's Berättarministeriet (Ministry of Stories).
We spent three packed days with writing centre colleagues exchanging best practice, as we shared together talks, tours of local cultural sites, conversations and cinnamon buns!
We learnt about the power of 'artefacts' and props in our storytelling practices, had a surprise guest (writer and 826Valencia founder Dave Eggers) and even got to visit an alien supermarket! Watch this space for some international collaboration projects coming up next year...
Images of just some of the artists and creatives we've collaborated with this year to run workshops and projects with our young writers. Top Left to Bottom Right: Roy McFarlane, Sarah Sayeed, AFLO the poet, Maggie Chau, Louie Levack. Coco Kirkland, Creative Waves, Jo Neary, Helen Cann, Rayna Haralambieva, Thomas Buckley, Natalie England, Jessica Starns, Darren East, Nick Sharratt, Kaia Allen-Bevan, Emma Joy Edwards, Suhayla El-Bushra, Brighton Zoo/Dominic Minns , Laura Wilkinson and Jacques Griffith. All copyright for photos belongs to the artists/photographers.
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