National Writing Day
From First Story
Resource type: Event
Price band: Free
Key stage: KS2, KS3, KS4
Region(s): All of UK
National Writing Day is an annual celebration of creative writing for young people. It is provided by a coalition of literacy organisations and publishers, led by First Story. National Writing Day 2026 takes place on 24th June.
The First Story website hosts a number of free resources that schools can use to engage and encourage writers of all ages and abilities. Resources include:
- A National Writing Day 2026 activity created by award-winning author Patrice Lawrence challenging young writers to #WriteaBookByItsCover. There is a short video to watch and a writing prompt to download. Share pupils stories on Instagram on 24th June for the chance to win £100 of National Book Tokens for your library.
- A library of creative writing exercises for KS3 and KS4 (National 4 and 5) students.
- A series of ‘Inside the Writer’s Mind’ videos with accompanying teaching resources, created in partnership with BBC Teach.
- Links to creative writing exercises and activities for primary and secondary schools from partner organisations: Arvon, the English & Media Centre, the Forward Arts Foundation and the National Literacy Trust .
Cost: Free.
About First Story: First Story is charity that aims to provide high quality creative writing opportunities for students in non-selective state secondary schools in low-income communities. The charity runs writers-in-residence programmes, CPD courses for teachers, regional and national events and writing competitions.
Further resources:
- Listen to top children’s authors talk about their inspiration and writing process with an Authorfy Masterclass. Free to access for the whole of the National Year of Reading, there are over 100 authors featured with Masterclasses for all ages from 5–11+.
- Explore the creative writing for schools resources on the Scottish Book Trust website, including tips and activities for secondary pupils from award-winning author Brian Conaghan.
- Discover to use photographs and other images to inspire your young writers with the free Photos for Writing teaching resource.
- Get involved with author Andy Shepherd’s mini writing challenge based on her best-selling series The Boy Who Grew Dragons.
- Join best-selling author Jenny McLachlan as she offers practical tips and advice for writing creatively on her Roarsome Writing Club videos on YouTube.
- Submit a story for this year’s Inclusive Voices short story competition. Open to writers of all ages, the competition runs from 4th June – 13th September 2026 and is looking for entries that explore what it means to understand and share another person’s feelings. Entries can be prose or poetry, written, video or audio. Sign up for an online workshop with author and judge A. M. Dassu on 6th July for some ideas and inspiration.
- Young Writers run themed writing competitions all through the year with supporting resources for teachers.
- Encourage pupils aged 11-17 to enter the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award. The deadline for entries is 31st July.
- The English and Media Centre produce illustrated creative writing workbooks for secondary pupils. Just Write and Write On each contain over 40 writing activities for pupils to choose from to explore their own creativity.
- Celebrate young people’s writing by publishing their work using the Make Our Book platform.
- Read about Elmhurst Primary’s journey to implement a writing for pleasure curriculum and the impact it has had on writing achievement and engagement in our guest blogs by Literacy Lead Sam Creighton.
- Explore evidence-based approaches that support reading and writing for pleasure in the Reading and Writing for Pleasure: A Framework for Practice report from the Open University.
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