Senior pupils at Wester Hailes Education Centre have celebrated a successful premiere of their original play, Blood Isn’t Thicker Than Water, at the Traverse Theatre as part of the venue’s Class Act schools project.

Nicola McCartney, a playwright who worked with the pupils, said: “They were genuinely pleased about having their voices heard and being taken seriously.”

About 70 pupils from Broughton, Craigmount and James Gillespie’s High, Trinity Academy and Wester Hailes Education Centre (WHEC) have been working with professional playwrights in workshops to develop dozens of plays which premiere at the Traverse Theatre this week.

Organisers of the Class Act project said scenes from plays written by pupils had been selected and prepared for performance.

At WHEC, pupils worked with playwrights to produce a play called Blood Isn’t Thicker Than Water, which explores race relations in today’s Scotland.

They described the experience as transformational and said it had boosted their confidence.

S6 pupil Ashleigh Hibberd, 17, said: “It was scary doing this at first – I hadn’t ever done anything like it before. But it was great to meet the directors and I’m excited about putting the play on at the Traverse. I think my writing has really improved.”