2025 All Wrapped Up

116 new volunteers, two brand-new writing groups and one resplendent neon leopard!

“It’s the end of the year already?!” I hear you cry, in an incredulous tone. We can’t believe it either! But when we look back at EVERYTHING that has happened this year, it starts to make sense.

From DreamState to Fun Palaces, it’s been a whirlwind of a year. Here’s some snapshots of a tremendous 2025, all wrapped up and ready for your perusal.

First of all, our Community Writing Labs. We are absolutely glowing with pride at all the work our young writers have created. In spring they made some of the zaniest zines we’ve ever seen (not an easy sentence to say).

Summer saw The Ditch at Shoreditch Town Hall’s transformed into our ambitions and interactive exhibition DreamState. And our most recent term culminated in the creation of two fantastic new boardgames, engineered entirely by our young writers (more on that in the new year).

DreamState was a roaring success! We welcomed a sold-out audience of over 1,300 people, who choose their own path through eight fantastical rooms, with all the ideas and writing coming from our 129 young writers aged 6-16.

2025 also saw our Community Writing Labs grow with two new weekly groups, meaning we now welcome children from six all the way up to 18.

This year has also been full of great projects with schools. A few months ago, we took over Swanlea school for the day and worked with over 200 students to create side-splitting sketches. We also created curious articles in The Woolmore Oracle and The Manorfield Beacon of Hope. We were enthralled by the rousing speeches of Speak Up, our public-speaking project that sees students construct compelling speeches on the topics they care about most.

Our monstrous shop, Hoxton Street Monster Supplies, has also had an unprecedented year. Two new monsters have found their way into our Monster Mail service – a curious Mermaid called Pearl and a feisty fairy by the name of Nettle. Much to the chagrin of some of our shyer Monster customers, we’ve been noticed by some tech-savvy humans at Secret London.

In October we took part in the Fun Palace campaign and held a free Make your Own Monster Trading Card workshop for our community. Lots of young people – and some brave adults – joined our market stall and tried their hand at making up a monstrous character.

We’re also so chuffed that lots of people have taken on challenges on behalf of Ministry of Stories, helping us raise £3,484! Our speediest supporters were Ali, Abbey and Laura, who took on the Hackney Half in May, and our wonderful Volunteer Writing Mentor Greg Nay, who cycled 100km through Epping Forest in September to raise a whopping £708. That’s more than £7 per kilometer!

We’ve also had to say some fond farewells this year. Two of our Writing Facilitators, Jenny and Mayo, have moved onto exciting new literary adventures and after nine years on the board of Ministry of Stories, and three as Chair of Trustees, we said an enormous thank you and farewell to Michaela Greene.

But we also had the pleasure of welcoming Sarah and Autumn into the team, our new Writing Facilitators who already feel like part of the furniture (not like sofas, more like family).

The last 12-months have been a blur of breadsticks, board games and brilliant writing. We are proud to say we have:

• Sold 114 jars of snot (sourced across many humans, not just one cold-filled person)
• Seen 4,289 breadsticks devoured in the name of brain fuel
• Had the pleasure of sharing in the imaginations of 150 sensational young writers in our Community Writing Labs

We’re excited for what 2026 will bring For now, we are going to eat too many mince pies and have a well earned rest. We hope you do the same.