Today we celebrated the launch of our second book, ‘This Is Us 2’, a collection of wonderfully inspiring stories based on the rich, cultural diversity of our local community. It was lovely to listen to Year 7 learners read excerpts from their book with confidence to a full audience of Year 7 parents/carers and staff during our Project Trivium Showcase event. It was also heartwarming to see so many guest visitors who had provided support in the Autumn Term with talks on their own life experiences, return to school for the book launch and to view the outcome of this incredible project they have been involved in.
We now invite you to read these stories with the same curiosity, empathy, and openness our learners showed throughout this journey. Within the pages of their book, you’ll find powerful voices, diverse experiences, and inspiring lives – and you may even recognise yourself in one of them.
This is us. This is our community. These are our stories.
This Is Us 2 is now available to purchase in school for £6 and can also be purchased via the Arbor Parent app. Alternatively, please visit our SumUp Online Store or scan the QR code where a delivery option is also available. All proceeds from book sales will go to Bolton based charity, BRASS, an organisation which supports refugees and asylum seekers with a range of services to help overcome barriers and integrate into the local community.
Please support our wonderful community by purchasing your very own copy!
To learn more about the project and origins of the book, please continue reading below:
Ladybridge High School (and our wider community) is full of amazing people who come from a diverse range of nationalities and backgrounds. Our community has a rich cultural identity and a breadth of life experience and wisdom. We believe that everyone has a story that deserves to be told, so this term our Year 7 cohort have worked towards writing a story inspired by someone from our community in their English lessons. They found inspiration in real people with real life experiences and wrote their stories with enthusiasm and commitment, which we hope to publish at the end of the year.
We named the project This is Us Part 2, which is a continuation from the amazing success of This is Us Part 1 last academic year. The project formally launched with an assembly with Krish from Tales to Inspire, delivered by Stacey Copeland, who had a career as both a professional footballer and boxer. Stacey spoke about the challenges and obstacles that she had faced forging a professional sporting career in such male dominated fields. She highlighted her achievements (and failures) and reminded all of us about the power of ambition, resilience, kindness and inclusivity. We aimed for learners to both understand and be inspired by the power of storytelling and challenged them to use their own curiosity to find a story within our community.
While learners continued to engage in (and practice) the necessary writing skills in their English lessons, we organised a range of guest speakers to share their stories in school with our Year 7 learners. From the Mayor of Bolton, to headteachers, governors, athletes, business owners, charity founders, alumni, military and police personnel: all told inspirational tales of their careers, life-shaping moments, their successes and their failures. Learners displayed outstanding respect and curiosity and again had the opportunity to understand the value of story-telling from real life people in our community.
Now that learners have the stimulus, skills and inspiration that they need, they are in the process of drafting their This is Us stories; some classes are writing the biographical tale of their guest speaker, while others are choosing to write up the stories of their families, friends, peers or wider community. The aim is to include every Year 7 learner’s story into a publishable book; a book that will celebrate and honour the stories that have defined and continue to shape our community. We can not wait to share and enjoy the final product with our Ladybridge community!