Coinciding with World Book Day on 3rd March, every child at Å·ÃÀ×ÔÅÄ's took part in our Book Week activities, celebrating the joy of language and reading. Five authors gave talks and workshops across the week, including: , , Elle McNicoll, and . Younger children at Byron House donned their pyjamas and returned to school for hot chocolate and snacks beside the 'fire' with teachers reading and sharing some of the children's favourite stories. Another highlight was the ever popular Extreme Reading Competition which saw children reading down ski slopes, in tree-houses, on windy beaches and more. The finale was 'Dress as a Book Character Day' as well as the children having the chance to peruse a wealth of books in the Heffers Book Fair.
Simon Mole is acclaimed children’s poet and National Poetry Day Ambassador who runs two live online poetry workshops a month as well as having created poetry tutorial videos on his You Tube channel. Younger children loved his workshops based on his books ‘I love my Bike’ and ‘Kites’. During the KG workshop the children wrote two group poems about their ‘super duper amazing’ dream bike. T1 and T2 wrote poems about their dream bike in small groups and then shared them. Senior House children were all inspired to create their own poems and to have the freedom to express their ideas, change ideas and refine as part of the whole writing process. His workshops were hugely energised, entertaining and the children were inspired to write their own poetry after his visit.
Forms 1 to 6 were spellbound by Kevin Crossley-Holland’s talk and his words about the spell and magic of language. His tips included, ‘Don’t rush your story, but keep it purposeful. Keep it tight and brisk’ and ‘See if you can put the language of magic in your writing. Make music and pictures with your words.’ Kevin’s love is of the ancient world and of Norse myths and the children were intrigued by the author speaking in Anglo-Saxon; they came away with a real love of language.
As the Byron House children came into the library they were met with an array of characters and props from Mini Grey’s picture books. The author explained that making a picture book is a bit like making a cake as you collect all the delicious ingredients and put them into your stories. Mini loves writing stories about toys having adventures, food coming to life and pets that have jobs to do. She fascinated the children with tales from her latest book, ‘The Last Wolf,’ before showing them how to illustrate their own wolf stories with different expressions by drawing different eyes. When Mini is writing a new book she often makes a 'mini' book to show her publisher and the children were lucky to be shown her new book ‘The Greatest Show’, due to be published in April.
Ross Welford was a business journalist before becoming a freelance writer and television producer. Ross’ debut novel, ‘Time Travelling with a Hamster’ was shortlisted for nearly every major literary award including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, The Costa Book Award and The Blue Peter Book Award. The author gave his essential tips and tricks of the trade to help the children develop as writers. He passed on the essential tip to rewrite and rework one's writing, as well as how to formulate engaging characters and plot ideas. Ross entertained the children whilst discussing how he became a writer and how he engaged with books as a child. He conveyed his love of reading and how this has inspired him as well as wowing everyone with his magic tricks.
Acclaimed Scottish author, Elle McNicoll, inspired Forms 1 upwards with her rise to success as a neurodivergent author. Her debut, A Kind of Spark, won the Blue Peter Book Award and the Overall Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, as well as Blackwell’s Book of 2020. She is Carnegie nominated, and was shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Awards 2020, the Branford Boase Award and The Little Rebels Award. She is an advocate for better representation of neurodiversity in publishing.
Elle explained how autism presents differently in everyone with some common traits affecting social skills, motor skills and the way of thinking; and shared her experience of being autistic but keeping it secret at school. She now believes you should always be open about who you are. Elle’s second book Show Us Who You Are featuring two neurodivergent main characters was published on World Book Day, Thursday 4 March.