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Moss Side Stories is a multimedia exhibition project that enables the pupils of Manchester Academy to explore their own life stories in the form of poetry, prose, painting and video art. And in a school with 63 languages spoken and pupils from across the world, the stories are memorable, moving and often inspirational.

Manchester Academy is part of the United Learning Trust, an organization that runs several academies across the country, working alongside the United Church Schools Trust. The United Learning Trust's ethos is that every child should have the opportunity to become very best that they can be. This can be seen in the enormous improvements students make when coming to the Academy, the school coming top in Manchester for Contextualised Added Value. The school motto is "The Best in Everyone", a belief that underpins all aspects of the school's work. As such, it is hardly surprising that in its recent OFSTED inspection, Manchester Academy was rated an 'Outstanding' place of learning.

In December 2008, following a public vote, the Moss Side Stories project won one of MMU’s new Public Engagement Fellowships, a scheme designed to build permanent links with the local community.

Led by Dr Linnie Blake, Programme Leader for English, the project set out to enable Academy students (many from ethnic minority groups and areas where economic deprivation can make life difficult) to explore their own creativity through a series of professionally facilitated workshops in creative writing, art and video production whilst challenging negative stereotypes about their area

Manchester Academy pupils have also been working hard on their own musical production, Moss High Musical, which MMU students have photographed and filmed.

Over the seven months of the project, Manchester Academy students have benefited from the expertise of MMU staff and students, whilst MMU students have been able to gain vital work experience as they become more a part of their local community.

It all comes together on 7 July, when the Moss Side Stories Exhibition at MMU’s Link Gallery, All Saints, Manchester opens to the public.

Showcasing the talent of local young people, the exhibition will welcome Manchester Academy students along with their friends and families to their local university.


We hope it will be the start of a longstanding collaboration between our two institutions and the wider communities we serve. Most importantly we hope it will enable us to show, in the words of the Manchester Academy motto, “The Best in Everyone.”

A documentary illustrating the evolution of the project will be screened at the exhibition along with ten video monologues and anthology of stories and poems is in press.

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