When did you last try something creative? As the new school year begins, many people reflect on creative subjects from their school days, perhaps wondering how to take them further or explore something entirely new for the first time.
Share Your Story on George Street has created courses with exactly this in mind. With small group classes in photography, creative writing and audio-visual production, all delivered face-to-face at their studio, there's something for every creative curiosity.
We spoke to the tutors behind these courses to discover what drives their teaching, why creativity matters, and which new creative skills they'd love to master themselves.
Poppy Macleod – Creative Content for Business
Poppy's course targets small business owners and team members, teaching them to plan and design digital content, from graphics to filming and editing videos.
"Creativity is a huge part of being a business owner, and one of the most exciting aspects," she said. "Creating content tells stories about both people and businesses, which is essential for connecting with audiences and helping them get to know you."
Brooke Marsden – Fiction Writing for All
Brooke's course aims to unlock students' ability to surprise themselves. "Most people think they can't write anything worthwhile in 10 minutes, but give them a prompt, play some music, and suddenly they can! Once you're in that creative zone, words appear on the page that you never expected."
She believes creativity fulfills a fundamental human need: "When the world is racing around you at a million miles an hour, slowing down to create something that only your hands could make is what stops time."
Jane Burkinshaw – Photography Courses
Jane offers courses including 'Phone Photography' and 'Get Off Auto', all designed to help people discover the extraordinary in everyday moments. Her approach focuses on creating interesting photographs by seeing subjects differently – through close-ups, unusual angles, or converting colour to striking black and white.
Like Brooke, she sees creativity as essential for wellbeing: "It presses pause on the stresses of modern life."
Lola Glass – Meet Yourself Through Writing
Lola's course focuses less on technical writing skills and more on trusting your voice, expressing yourself honestly, and discovering the themes and stories that matter most to you.
"The world is loud," she says. "Creativity allows us to disconnect from external noise, pause, and reconnect with ourselves."
Gavin Taylor – Film Production Workshop
Gavin runs the ‘Film Production Workshop’ at Share Your Story. His course helps people understand the importance of planning, skills in camera movement and composition of shots that can make your short films more interesting and cinematic to tell a powerful story.A key part of his work is nurturing and developing creativity in everyone and seeing how everyone’s input can improve every film,Gavin would like to develop his creative editing skills to master different software packages in future to help others to learn these skills.
Courses can be booked online at shareyourstory.uk or in-store at 85 George Street in Altrincham. If you don’t see the course you want here, pop into Share Your Story and tell them what you’re looking for.
