The Sharing Stories Project was established as part of the Anti-Racism Mentoring Programme at St Augustine’s RC High School in 2026. For many years S2 Modern Studies students at St Augustine’s have written anti-prejudice kids’ picture books. Our students have created some incredibly powerful, moving and thoughtful books each year, so we wanted to give them an opportunity to share their outstanding work and important message more widely.
For 2026 we expanded the project to incorporate our learning community primary schools and the community of west Edinburgh more broadly. As well as S2s continuing to write stories, P5 and P6 pupils at four schools joined in with lessons guiding them in creating their own anti-prejudice kids’ picture books. Groups of S2 students went to primary schools to support and mentor the younger pupils. The very best books from across the five schools were then copied and displayed in libraries across west Edinburgh through the summer holidays, so our young authors could share their anti-prejudice message and inspiring creativity with the community.
Finally, a group of St Augustine’s students represented the project at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August. The best 40 books by our primary and secondary authors were taken along to the Festival’s Primary Gala Day, and our wonderful S2 volunteers read these to the visiting primary pupils from across the Lothians – while also encouraging them to develop their own stories, and supplying them with stickers!
The article below was written by one of the wonderful S2 authors who visited primary schools, had their book displayed in libraries and then shared their work at the Book Festival. We are so proud of all of the young people involved in this project!
Writing my story
I remember my first idea for my story was colourful slime, I soon realised drawing slime was difficult and unpredictable, you couldn’t really copy and paste the same body for the character, I played around and decided on a colourful stickman-like thing.
So I had my characters’ shape but no story. Going to the different types of Protected Characteristics and messages for inspiration I decided on race, and bullying. I wanted something kids would find fun but not like every other book following those themes – something kids of that age would relate too. I used words like “best friends forever and ever” and didn’t make anything too complicated so kids that age would understand better. I made everything bright and colourful hoping kids would find that interesting and listen to the story.
Bullying is a common issue among young kids, most of the time it’s about looks or popularity, at the end of the day I was hoping if I made a book fun, yet relatable enough I could convince young kids getting bullied to stand up for themselves and bullies at that age to rethink their actions. I hope I at least kept one or two kids thinking about the plot-line well after reading or hearing my book.
It took me a long time until I finally got my story of two colours, Purple and Green, who are best friends but their colours don’t match. Pink has something to say about this – she makes Green upset. Green gets worried and decides it is easier to follow Pink’s rules then be friends with Purple. In the end Purple convinces Green they can stay best friends forever and they do. The story took me around four drafts and a lot of time! It’s simple yet drives my message.
Primary schools
We went to 3 different primary schools, St Cuthberts, St Margaret’s, and St Andrews. It was really fun and great getting to show our books to younger kids. At one of the schools a little girl even asked for my autograph which made me feel ecstatic – like an author doing a book signing or a famous person walking the red carpet! It was cool to see how much of an impact the book might actually have by the kids’ reactions and how invested they were in the story.
The more and more I talked about the book to the younger kids I started to feel more confident in what I was saying. I also developed a script so it was quicker and easier to talk to them – when we went for the very first time I had been nervous, I didn’t know what to say. Overall, I think it helped my confidence and was just really fun to get to do.
It took me a long time until I finally got my story of two colours, Purple and Green, who are best friends but their colours don’t match. Pink has something to say about this – she makes Green upset. Green gets worried and decides it is easier to follow Pink’s rules then be friends with Purple. In the end Purple convinces Green they can stay best friends forever and they do. The story took me around four drafts and a lot of time! It’s simple yet drives my message.
Libraries
It was really amazing to see my work in a library. I mainly went to a library because my younger cousin went and she sent me a picture holding my book, which made me feel really happy. I know some of my other friends who made it a mission to take pictures at every library. I definitely took a picture of my book, it’s crazy to think this technically means I am a published author!
Edinburgh International Book Festival
The Book Festival was definitely the highlight of the entire project. At the Book Festival we got to share our books with a wider audience.
I remember trying to scout kids from the other stalls to come by. We even brought the worksheets that we had used for our very first draft for the kids to complete.
I also went to one of the other stalls to ask them about what they were doing. The people running it had seen the stickers we were given out and started asking me what we were doing, I brought them my book and they thoroughly loved it. It was incredible seeing that not only the target audience was interested in the book but also the older adults.
There were two kids I helped out particularly. One of them was a girl who had already written a lot of stories but got stumped when writing this one – I managed to help her find a story.
She wrote a book about ghost, detectives and a tea party. A boy who was in a similar situation made up his own episode for the TV show Henry Danger on Netflix. I really enjoyed getting to help them out and create a whole story with them and their imaginations.
