Really cross with school - Young Writers

[Dancergirl]

Has anyone else had a child whose work has been published in a Young Writers book?

Young Writers are a publishing company who claim that 'your' child has had a piece of writing selected to be published in a book. A small paperback book which costs £15.99 plus £2 postage!!

It's all done through the school but parents had no knowledge of entries being put in until we received letters saying our child had been selected. Parents (myself included) are angry because a) the school gave out our names and addresses to the company without permission....and b)we are now pressurised into buying this massively over-priced book.

My younger dd also had a poem published in one of these books last year and again parents were cross that details were given out. The teacher admitted it was an oversight and apologised (sort of) but this same teacher has done it again this year!

WWYD?

I raised this with our school a few years ago and was stunned when the same letter appeared before Christmas.
Its a scam, if the kids want their poems in a book then do a competition in school, have a winner and then create their own book to sell to the parents for a reasonable price.
Perhaps if everybody on here contacts Watchdog then we can get the word out so no-one else is conned :)

Great thread to remind parents!
I wouldn't have known about this without it.
Hope people keep bumping.

Wow, I can't believe this is still going on. I "won" a couple of times when I was about 14 or 15, so that would have been more than 12 years ago! If I recall correctly, there was some quality control going on as the worst poems didn't make the cut.

The second time we had a bit of fun with it and tried to see how outrageous we could be. I submitted a poem about fellatio dressed up as eating an ice cream or some such nonsense.

It duly "won" and was published

My ds (12) has had 3 letters/certificates in the post in as many weeks for different short stories he's written from this company. All for different £15.99 books ( that I've said I'm not buying). He said everyone in his class has 'won' at least one. I spoke to his form tutor and suggested they bought a copy of each book for the school library so the 'winners' can see their published work.

I was considering starting a new thread but seeing as this zombie thread has been recently resurrected I thought I'd post here after all. Most of my DS's Y6 group have brought one of these letters home today. Feeling very cross that the school are joining in with this scam.

My child brought home one of these letters on Friday, I know at least one other in his class (year one) got the same.

From what I can gather, most of the class got one at DS's school

(Zombie thread)

I've just seen an update on the website of a well-known London private girls' school saying that one of the students has been selected for publication in one of these

They've gone down immensely in my estimation; how on earth could nobody have known what it was?

Deliberately not linking/giving school name as the poor girl's certificate is pictured and her name is given. Suffice to say it's v near Sloane Square. And I suppose I can cross it off my list of potential schools

Threaten to sue them for giving out personal information.

Oh hell, I started a thread already and then saw this.

The fuckers are still at it. I've signed the permission form for DS, but I'm not paying out for any copies, and I'm going to have a word with the school so they don't fall for this again.

Much has changed for the better between me being in education and my dd being in education. However, one thing that has definitely changed for the worse is that schools and universities used to be places for education. Now they are businesses where the main aim is making enough money to keep going. The schools are probably continuing with these schemes because there is a profit in it for the school.
Dd has not had the book one, but their school did have the football one about 5 years ago.

Dina1234 - this would need to be something taken up with the school as they entered the competition, the only information that they even have is the child’s first name and the school address

the only information that they even have is the child’s first name and the school address
They must have a very clever relationship with the Post Office then or do they have an arrangement with Wizarding post because the "winning" pupils get the letter at home-presumably so they don't realise that basically everyone is a winner until after they've posted on Fb and paid for a copy of the book.

The schools do give out the child’s home address as we had 3 letters from them asking for permission to publish dd’s poem. I ignored them because it’s a complete scam and I complained to dd’s teacher about them giving out our address to a third party.

We got one of these letters recently but it was sent to my son c/o the school address. So they don't have to give your home address.

Resurrecting this thread - this company are still going. Most of the kids in my DCs year groups have been "selected". Books cost £15.99 or 3 for 2, total charlatans. My feelings is that the school had signed up in good faith without realising - I wonder if the info they send out in advance doesn't mention that most kids get selected and the price of the books?

How is it even legal for the school to give out our personal addresses/info to a private company with the new tougher data protection laws? This shouldn't be allowed.

Our school only gave names not addresses as the letters went through school, I was surprised they could give full names to a commercial company without asking parents, but they say it's allowed.

Got a letter last week, daughter in year 2. The first thing that made us suspicious is that the copy of the poem that she 'wrote' didn't sound like her at all, e.g. we don't bake cookies at home and she's never tried candy floss! Letter came via school, surname not printed just first name and initial of surname, guess that's how they get around GDPR. Annoyed that the school have done this , they are constantly extracting cash from parents as it is. Monday morning will be interesting to see how many other 'poetry stars' the year group has!

Ugh. These people are horrible. My young teen came home with one of their letters a few months ago and was very upset when she realised it was vanity publishing rather than actual “winning”. I emailed the school to complain as I think it’s a cynical way to rip money from parents and exploiting the kids (though I’m sure enough parents view it as harmless fun to keep the cash rolling in...)

I wouldn't assume that the school is necessarily colluding with this. At my school we got 'got' by one of these publications, and we entered it entirely in good faith without any idea of what the company was up to. Also, we didn't give out any personal info (when parents received letters at home, it was because they had put their own details on an entry form), nor did we make any money out of it. We honestly just thought it was an opportunity to encourage writing. Obviously we would never do it again!