The site was the idea of John Bird, co-founder of the Big Issue, and is edited by part-time English teacher Jane McNamara. “We want to encourage literacy in all sections of the community and our website provides young writers with a worldwide audience,” says Ms McNamara, who reads all the submissions before they are posted.

Young writers can sign up and submit fiction, non-fiction and poems. Visitors in search of a good read can search for stories alphabetically, or by author, date or genre. The site’s cherry-picking system helps visitors to choose the best stories, but they can also see how many people have read the submissions. Encouragingly, many of the stories have a readership that runs into triple figures.

There’s a “teacher’s pack”, although this consists of a printable series of suggested exercises for students who want to develop their writing skills.

The site is a spin-off from www.abctales.com, which offers a similar service for adults. The best material from both sites is published in the free monthly magazine ABCtales, which can be picked up from most branches of Hammicks bookshops and The Body Shop.