what we do
We believe that the act of creative writing, indeed, creativity in general, is vitally important to a child’s growth. Exercising the imagination and creating stories in particular, helps a child to make sense of the world around them, helps them question the world around them and helps them to orientate themselves within the world around them. It improves life chances and career outcomes for every young person. Of course, not every young person who works with The Bank will become a Booker Prize winning author, but they will be more confident, more curious and more ambitious as a result. They’ll be a funkier lawyer, a more satisfied plumber. When a young person recognises that they have achieved something remarkable - like, say, writing a story good enough to be published, we know that it sets up a mindset of:
“If I can do that… what else can I do?”
why we do it
We’re committed to tackling educational inequalities by reaching children who face barriers such as poor transport links, low household income, and limited extracurricular provision. We’re rooted in our local community and uniquely positioned to support children in rural, underserved areas where access to creative and cultural enrichment is extremely limited. Since our founding in 2021, we’ve worked with over 3,000 children across 25 schools, community venues and alternative education settings. We specialise in the kind of work that other services often overlook, by engaging children who are neurodiverse, anxious, disengaged, or simply not thriving in traditional education settings.
According to the National Literacy Trust, in 2025, only 32.7% of children and young people aged 8-18 said they enjoyed reading in their free time, the lowest level recorded since NLT began recording this data. Additionally, just 18.7% of children and young people aged 8-18 said they read something daily in their free time, also the lowest level recorded to-date. The number of referrals to Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust’s Children & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Dorset went from 4,557 in 2019/20 to 7,550 in 2023/24, an increase of 65%. In 2023/24, approximately 20% of pupils in Dorset state-schools had SEN (either SEN Support or an Education, Health & Care Plan (EHCP)).