Former Primary School teacher and Senior Leader, Michelle Young runs Ink Wing Academy - a Creative Writing service that has a passion for spreading a love for writing, raising confidence and standards as a result. Mum of two gorgeous girls, Michelle often refers to IWA as her 'third baby'. 

 

After graduating with a BSc Psychology degree in London in 2000, Michelle Young (Garvey) continued to study a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education. She began her teaching career in Special Education and then as an Upper KS2 teacher in mainstream with positions in leadership as SENCO and KS2 Leader & Literacy Leader respectfully.

 

During her career, Michelle took part in a Shakespeare for Primary Schools Project ‘As you like it’ led by Trouble Maker Theatre Company at Norden Farm, Maidenhead for several years. She consequently trained to teach ‘Shakespeare for Kids’. She also has a CPD certificate from Roehampton University in Personal, Social and Health Education, underpinning her interest and qualifications in emotional literacy and literature within the vast realms of wellbeing and emotional awareness.

 

Near the end of her successful teaching career, Michelle had begun to work as a writing moderator for the Local Education Authority in Reading, Berkshire and was involved in working with teachers within Reading LEA regarding achieving a high standard of writing for more able writers in Primary School. She was lucky enough to work with Talk for Writing's Pie Corbett in a collaborative-schools 'Transforming Writing' three year project which aimed to raise standards in writing across many Primary Schools in Reading.

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Michelle is a member of the National Association of Writers in Education. As well as running Ink Wing Academy, she also works as Writer in Residence for Arts Care in the Western Health & Social Care Trust (mainly within the area of Mental Health). She also freelances as a Creative Writing & Poetry facilitator for The Pushkin Trust and Community Arts Partnership's ‘Poetry in Motion’ for Schools. This year, Michelle became an accredited Talk for Writing teacher trainer to officially bring what she believes is the best literacy training to schools in Northern Ireland.

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Michelle is passionate about how storytellers, communicators and writers of any age grow a love for the process of writing. She fully embraces the belief that they should explore a theme and grow a bank of vocabulary and strong ideas around a subject, through exploration of excellent texts, film and images, to build an inner and outer scaffold to lean on as they get to grips with the complex nature of writing as a craft. This science of exploring, thinking and experimentation to gain confidence in one's ability to write is the core ethos behind her business: Explore. Believe. Write.

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With a rich background in engaging facilitation, special education, mainstream teaching, progressive leadership and writing within the realms of Mental Health, Michelle has a wealthy tapestry of experience to share as well as the adventure of her own personal writing journey as an emerging writer herself. Recently, some of Michelle's short stories for children were published in 2020 during lockdown in a collaborative publication of Irish writers; Lights on the Horizon, which is now in its second publication. She has also recently released her first children's book, 'The Moon's Beam', which will be available to purchase now. Many of the projects that Michelle has facilitated have been published or showcased, including  CAP’s yearly ‘Poetry in Motion’ anthology and Shared Education publications: Romeo and Juliet, ‘Alike in Dignity’, 2017 and ‘Young Minds, New Futures’, 2016.

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