Booking for groups running from the school year 2025-26
Our biggest ever programme of Spark groups meet in person all over the region, and online.
You will find most of our groups in two sections: Junior aged young writers (school years 3-6, roughly equivalent to 7-11 years old) and Teenage writers (school years 7-13, roughly equivalent to 12-17 years old). Click on the relevant button below for the groups available to that age range. Find the group nearest to you at our Group locator.
We are offering two different types of groups:
In-person groups will start meeting in-person from September in 14 different locations across the region.
Online groups will meet online all year using Zoom, whatever restrictions are in place.
Spark Young Writers groups meet monthly from September to June/July (10 sessions a year), for 2 hours on a Saturday.
In 2025 – 2026 the cost for the year is £100 (£10 a session) and you can pay by via a one-off bulk card payment, or monthly direct debit. We also offer a taster session for a one-off £10 payment so you can see if your child likes it before committing.
Groups are mostly divided into school years 3-6 (junior aged children), and school years 7-12 (secondary or high school aged children.)
Free places are available if your young person is eligible for free school meals, or pupil premium. To claim a bursary place, it is essential that you email Emily Holtom in the Sparks office. You can see the eligibility criteria here.
We welcome young people with access needs and we endeavour to ensure our venues are wheelchair accessible where possible. Please talk to us about any specific needs your young writer might have and we will work with you and the venue to accommodate them to the best of our ability.
Please consider donating £10 towards our bursary fund, to allow young people to access the groups who may not otherwise be able to.
Spark Young Writers groups are writing groups for children and young people interested in any kind of creative writing.
Each group is:
- fun! We laugh a lot during the sessions
- friendly and informal
- small – max. 15 children
- led by a professional writer along with an assistant
- varied – your child will do all kinds of writing, from fiction to poetry to playwriting
- working on creative writing rather than spelling or punctuation
- a chance for your child to develop their creative writing
- a way to grow their confidence in their writing
- not assessed – your child will get feedback and suggestions, but no “grades” or “attainment levels” are given
To keep up to date with everything that is going on, including reminders about submission deadlines for our termly online magazine, you can sign up for the Young People and Schools mailing list.
If you have any questions about Spark Young Writers, please have a look at our Young Writers FAQs page.
There are occasional opportunities for group members to share their work at events for family members and friends as well as more public events. In previous years, members of the groups have shared their work at the Birmingham Literature Festival, Ledbury Poetry Festival, Coventry Mysteries and Wenlock Poetry Festival. Several have also been involved in publications and regularly submit to Spark Young Writers Magazine.
School years and ages
Year 3 (age 7-8), Year 4 (age 8-9), Year 5 (age 9-10), Year 6 (age 10-11) – Key Stage 2
Year 7 (age 11-12), Year 8 (age 12-13), Year 9 (age 13-14) – Key Stage 3
Year 10 (age 14-15), Year 11 (age 15-16) – Key Stage 4
If you have any further questions about the Spark Young Writers’ Groups please have a look at our Young Writers FAQs page. If you have a question that isn’t on this list, please get in touch by email. If you would prefer to discuss the groups, you can call Emma on 0121 246 2770 (option 2).
Young Writers’ group Supporters
For more information about the supporters on sponsors of our Spark Young Writers’ Groups please click here.