KEIGHLEY students’ creative talents are being showcased across the town centre.

Short stories and poems written by pupils in years seven and eight at Keighley’s three secondary schools – Beckfoot Oakbank, Holy Family and University Academy Keighley – have gone on display.

The Together We Can exhibition is the result of a creative writing competition which involved 300 young people – 100 from each of the schools.

They were given two activity booklets – one featuring a painting of a room at Keighley’s Cliffe Castle and the other a view of the town, looking out over the old mills.

The students were then offered prompts and tips on how to use the images as inspiration for their stories and poems.

The initiative was organised by arts charity Keighley Creative and funded through Bradford Council’s #response2 small grants programme.

Keighley resident and former English teacher Emma Rochford, who initiated the competition, said the aim was to “re-inspire” students who had spent a large portion of the past year home-schooling.

She added: “We were absolutely blown away by the students’ work and the creativity of our young people.

“Each and every student created something truly unique.

“We had stories about supernatural school trips, poems about life working in Victorian mills and lots of gorgeous descriptions of Cliffe Castle.

“We can’t thank our young writers enough for putting so much effort into their work.

“It was really hard to choose a winner, because they were all so good.”

The overall winner of the story competition was Mariam Ali, of University Academy Keighley, and first in the poetry contest was Eesha Hussain, of Holy Family School.

They each received a £75 voucher.

Runners-up were given £10 vouchers.

A selection of the entries can be seen at three locations – the Keighley Creative Gallery in Hanover Street, Keighley Library and Cliffe Castle Museum – until the end of the school summer holidays.

Keighley Creative is a volunteer-led organisation based in the old Sunwin House building. For more details, visit keighleycreative.org.