Hello there,
Young Writers have asked us to post the following statement on their behalf:
Young Writers has been working with schools for the past two decades and
although there has been negative press about the company our aim is
still very much the same... to encourage children from across the world
in their creative writing.
We provide schools with a pack full of ideas, lesson plans and key
points taken from the national curriculum to develop and encourage the
imagination of each child, whether they have a keen interest in poetry
and story writing or struggle to understand the concept. By creating
their unique creative writing pieces it is proven to boost children?s
confidence in school and later life.
The feedback we have received over the past 20 years is that our packs
are a useful tool within the classroom and that the themes and ideas
behind them encourage the children to express themselves. The schools
are made aware of what criteria is needed for a child to be accepted for
publication and although from the comments on here we sense that parents
are lead to believe that their child is only one of thousands, our
intention was not to mislead anyone. From our research over the years we
have been informed that a child seeing their work published is an
achievement in itself and not because they have been chosen to win.
We always welcome feedback about our services and we are keen to make
changes to the letter we send to parents to make them aware of their
child?s work being published. We would like to reassure teachers and
parents that we are not a scam.
Each publication is available to purchase as a keepsake. We are aware
that not all parents are interested in purchasing and therefore we
provide the school with the free copy so the children do not miss out
on seeing their poem or short story in print. The British Library holds
a copy of all our titles produced in their national archive.
The books have been priced at £15.99 and although this does seem
expensive for a book the price reflects the amount of work which goes
into producing each book. All poems/short stories received are read by
one of our editors and then goes on to be typed, corrected and formatted
before a proof is sent out to the parents. Once we have received the
permission forms back we have to make any changes that have been
requested and then our design team will create each publication before
our in-house printers produce the small print runs. We are a relatively
small family-run business and do not make huge profits from running each
competition. Our aim is promote and introduce poetry and story writing
to young children.
Our dedicated customer services team are available to talk to between
8am-5pm Monday to Friday. We are aware that throughout the day the line
can be engaged which does become frustrating to parents. The reason for
this is because we do work with thousands of schools from across the
world and we tend to communicate with them in school opening times. We
have added a new line recently to help, the telephone number is 01733
898110. We can only apologise for past issues and we will continue to
try and improve our communication services.
If you are having problems with reaching us on the telephone please
email us at [email protected] ,
we will aim to call you back within 24hrs.
For each competition that is created and sent to schools we offer a
prize to the best schools and on most occasions prizes for a selection
of children. The prizes range from £1000 to the school with the best set
of entries to a £10 book token for the child with the best poem from
their anthology. These prizes are aimed to be paid after the final book
has been printed and despatched from the series. I am sure each listed
school would be happy to inform you if they have received their prize.
I would also like to mention at this time that you are able to order a
copy of the book through the school who will receive the order on an
invoice basis, this would put your mind at rest and no payment would
need to be made until the product has been received.
If you would like to contact us about any concerns you have please feel
free to call us on 01733 890066.
Kind Regards,
Young Writers