Liverpool school playgrounds have been the setting for a surprise of superhero proportions over the past week as Writing on the Wall launched its new project for primary school pupils just in time for the beginning of the academic year.
Children at Broad Square Primary School, Blackmoor Park Junior School and Leamington Community Primary School were treated to an unexpected start to the day as superheroes descended on their schools hunting for book worms "on the loose across the city eating words and books".
The surprise visits marked the start of a three-year project for Toxteth - based Writing on the Wall, a writing and literature organisation which also runs WOWfest, Liverpool's longest-running literary festival.
The project, Superheroes: Words are our Power, will see writers in residence working with eight primary schools and 1,500 children across the city to inspire writing.
Writers-in-residence, Alan Gibbons, Pippa Pixley and Jon Mayhew, all award-winning authors specialising in children's stories, will work closely with local schools involved in the project to help children bring on their writing talent.
An earlier phase of the project saw 950 children become published writers, and the scheme uses the comic format to inspire children to develop their creative story-telling skills.
New Lord Mayor Anna Rothery, who was sworn in last week, attended the launch event at Blackmoor Park Junior School.
Children turned up in the playground to find superheroes running about searching for book worms.
Teachers and WOW staff played along too as the children tried to figure out what was actually going on.
Programme manager Emma Hulme said: "We want this project to combat pressures within primary schools and give support to children aged seven to eleven, using Super Heroes as a focus for them to write and find the Super Hero in themselves."
As part of the project, children will get the opportunity to have their work published in a special comic book produced by Writing on the Wall.
