Writer Ian Rankin joins the Super Power Agency

November 26, 2019 | Books

ebus author Ian Rankin shared some of his love of literacy with a group of Scots schoolchildren yesterday.

He was supporting the Super Power Agency, which has been helping schools across Edinburgh since 2016, with projects designed to boost reading and writing skills and encourage creativity.

Ian Rankin was the first of the writers to support the project at Leith Academy, which is also backed by Sara Sheridan, Jamie Johnson and Cambridge Jones, who will be donning virtual capes next week.

Fifty S1 pupils at Leith Academy have spent the last three months exchanging pen pal letters with Superhero alter egos, who are volunteers from the Super Power Agency and this week they are getting together with the people behind the prose.

Most superheroes have a dark back story and the catalyst for this charity was the ongoing challenge that around a third of today’s Scottish school pupils are leaving education without being ‘functionally literate’ .

Workshops are currently running in seven schools and the ultimate goal is to create Edinburgh’s first youth writing centre dedicated exclusively to young people. A safe space where they can write, create and thrive.

Shlok Godiyal and Louis Duncan Payne discuss the Super Power Agency at Leith Acadamye with author Ian Rankin (Photo: Angus Blackburn)

Super Power Agency CEO, Gerald Richards, said: ‘It’s wonderful to see young people, discover the joy of writing. Watching the S1 pupils connect with others who can inspire them through letters, affirms the power that writing can bring to a young person’s life and its continued benefits far beyond.’

The students involved in the latest pen pal project are a mix of reluctant readers and writers who have indeed blossomed under this new initiative. Writing to strangers has engaged imagination and helped personalities to shine through. One letter took the form of a rap, another, from a keen young cook, saw an exchange of recipes – everyone involved has been inspired.

Michael Irving, Head Teacher at Leith Academy, said: ‘We really value the partner work we are doing with the Super Power Agency to support literacy in young people creatively.’

Earlier this year S2 students at Broughton High School and residents of elder care facilities LifeCare and Haugh House/Mansfield Care, shared each others lives, hopes and dreams through letter writing. In January, the virtual friendships became actual, over tea and cakes.

Broughton High School English teacher, Rory Brown admitted: ‘When the Pen Pals project was announced, I was a bit sceptical. Overall, this project has changed my pupils. I think they see the world a bit differently now and it will be something that they, and I, will never forget.’

Through its own imprint, Super Power Books, the Super Power Agency publishes everything the young people write, whether it be a book, a zine, or a chapbook. Through the Years: Connecting Present and Past is the seventh book to be published since the charity started. One of the first books Leither’s Guide to Leith written by S4 and S5 pupils of Leith Academy, is now in the permanent collection of the National Library of Scotland.

The Super Power Agency is dedicated to supporting disadvantaged and under-resourced young people, aged 8-18, through writing and creative interdisciplinary projects. Established in 2016, it exists to give students the support they need to close the attainment gap in education, while providing fun, engaging and thought-provoking activities. It runs on the collective energy of its volunteers and supporters, such as authors Ian Rankin and Vivian French, and artists Kevin Harman and Jamie Johnson.