(Pictured, L-R: Ruth Hill-Beeley, Marie Daniels, Kath Dunn-Mines)
A recent initiative to support literacy amongst teenagers through a journalism competition has included two writers from Yorkshire Coast Gigs on its judging panel.
YCG Editor & Co-Director, Kath Dunn-Mines, and regular review writer, Ruth Hill-Beeley, were delighted to have recently been asked to sit on a panel alongside Marie Daniels, a former Scarborough Evening News journalist and now Research Programme Manager for the University of Leeds.
The competition involved the four schools within Coast and Vale Academy: Scalby School, Filey School, Scarborough UTC and Lady Lumley’s. Designed by Head of English Emily Vickers, the competition was intended to open their eyes to the world of English outside the classroom – to show them how much fun writing and reading is, the opportunities it can offer and the different sorts of working roles that engender written creativity.
The competition was open to Year 9 students at the four schools, who have been reading a book called ‘The Supreme Lie’ by Geraldine McCaughrean. Based in a world where there is a huge flood which is about to wipe out humanity, it teaches them a valuable lesson about how political propaganda and the media can be used to manipulate people. It contains themes about the power of the pen, and there is lots of drama – friends and loved ones with different beliefs torn apart. It is a heartening read, and through it, their school unit involves the question, ‘How do our relationships shape us as people?’
This question has become the basis for the journalism competition. The aim was to encourage young writers to think outside the box and choose an important relationship in their lives to write about. This could be a personal relationship or something more abstract – their relationship with sport, dance, music, identity, anything that is important to them. Judging took place earlier in December and the panel were dazzled by the variety of topics and the effective and compelling writing across the range of entries.
Alongside their work for Yorkshire Coast Gigs, Kath works as Executive Assistant within a theatrical organisation, a varied role which includes proofreading plays for performance and publication; Ruth is a psychotherapist specialising in young adults, who writes about mental health and wellbeing across various platforms including Teen Breathe magazine, Happiful, and The Counselling Directory.
Completing the trio on the panel, Marie Daniels went on to be News Editor at the Lincolnshire Echo before moving to various roles at the University of Lincoln, including Press Officer, Publications Manager, Project Manager and Commercial Relationships Manager. She recently took on management of a UK-wide project focused on research technical staff at the University of Leeds.
The judges were thrilled to have been invited to take part. It is an honour to be able to support literacy skills in young people, and the team genuinely enjoyed reading what these young people had to say. Well done to all who took part!
