The National Literacy Trust in Bradford is working with Bradford City of Culture 2025 to call on children in Bradford to pick up a pen and give writing a go with the Share Your Story campaign.
Writing for pleasure rates amongst children and young people in Yorkshire and the Humber are at an all-time low with less than 1 in 3 enjoying writing in their free time.
When children enjoy writing in their free time, they write more often, helping to build vital writing skills which brings wider benefits for their creativity, confidence and wellbeing.
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Benefits of writing for pleasure
National Literacy Trust writing research shows that children and young people who write in their free time do so to:
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Express themselves
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Build creativity
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Support their wellbeing
Win a visit from the Bradford Stories Bus!
We are asking children to submit their writing to our Share Your Story competition to be in with a chance to win exciting prizes!
The winning child may chose a Bradford school, library, or community setting to receive a visit from the Bradford Stories Bus.
The winning story will be designed into a mural by Bradford Artist Naureen Khwaja to be displayed in one of our author highlight windows on board.
Share your story with us
Could you be a poet, rapper, author, or comic book creator? Do you write in Punjabi, Romanian, English, French, Urdu, or Arabic?
Whatever language you use and whatever form it may take, you have a story worth sharing.
Explore the resource below to discover how you can share your story for Bradford 2025 and feature on the Share Your Story map.
You don’t have to use our resource to send your story to us. Let your imagination run wild and find your own way to share your story.
Parents, whether your child uses our writing resource or not, you can submit their story to us by emailing it to bradford@literacytrust.org.uk.
Please include:
- your child's age,
- your contact details,
- your neighbourhood (e.g. Wibsey)
- and of course, their writing submission.
To be in with a chance of winning a visit from the Bradford Stories Bus, please submit your entry by Monday 1 December 2025.
Full terms and conditions can be found at the bottom of this page.
Share your story map
Everyone has a story to tell. Explore the stories of people around Bradford with our share your story map.
Share Your Story competition terms and conditions
- The prize bus visit must take place between January and April 2026.
- The location of the bus visit must be a school, library or community setting approved by the National Literacy Trust team and the organisation receiving the visit.
- The winning entry will be displayed in a Bradford Stories Bus window for the duration of the National Year of Reading 2026.
- For the purposes of the winning bus window display the entire entry may not be reproduced in full but may include representative excerpts from the story.
- The competition is open to residents of the United Kingdom aged 5-11 at the time of entry.
- Entrants must have parental or guardian consent to submit an entry.
- Each entry must be an original story created solely by the entrant without help from anyone else or AI.
- No entry fee is required.
- Entries must be submitted by emailing bradford@literacytrust.org.uk by Monday 1 December 2025.
- Entrants retain full copyright of their work.
- By entering, entrants grant the National Literacy Trust a non-exclusive, royalty free licence to publish, reproduce and display the winning entry, including on the Bradford Stories Bus, websites, social media and print materials.
- Entries will be judged by the National Literacy Trust in Bradford project team.
- Winners will be notified via email by Friday 19 December 2025.
- Personal data will be processed in accordance with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
- Entrants’ details will only be used for the purpose of administering the competition and will not be shared with third parties, except as required by law.
- For more information, please see our Privacy Policy: www.literacytrust.org.uk/privacy
- These Terms and Conditions are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.