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News and Letters

March 2023

  • Author Visit from Anthony McGowan

    Published 23/03/23

    The author Anthony McGowan was invited by the Opus Book Awards students to visit the school and talk to the about his novel ‘I Am the Minotaur’ which is one of the 12 books the group are reading this year. We were joined by Opus Book Award students from Co-op Academy Priesthorpe.

    Anthony read an exciting extract from the novel and told us how he was inspired to write this scene based on a real life experience after having had his bike stolen.

    Students were given plenty of time to ask questions about ‘I Am the Minotaur’, along with his other novels and general questions about writing and publishing. 

    Later in the morning we were joined by some First Story students for a creative writing workshop, before which Anthony gave a very practical demonstration, using some students, of the 5 Stages of the Freytags Pyramid, how the action rises and falls within a story. He gave everyone some tips on how to start a story and hold the readers interest. Students were given the opportunity to read out their work at the end of the workshop.

    Anthony took time to speak to students on a one to one basis, sign autographs and take pictures. The students had a great time meeting and talking to him and there’s been many positive comments about his visit.  

    If you are interested in reading one of Anthony’s novels please come to the library and speak to Mrs Blashill.

     

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  • World Book Day 2023​​​​​​​

    Published 14/03/23

    Our World Book Day big event this year was the ‘Footy Booky Quiz’ where students answered questions about football and books posed by footballers and authors.

    Competition was fierce and staff had to be encouraged not to get too excited and shout out the answers. Our winner took home books, a chocolate orange, an electronic dictionary and a football.

    Runners up were given books, chocolate oranges and electronic dictionaries. We also had some Big Book Bonanza quizzes and a ‘design a book cover’ competition in the library.

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  • First Story – Our Anthology

    Published 14/03/23

    We are at the time of year when we need to find a name for the 2022-2023 Anthology of the First Story work, a culmination of all the prose and poetry that we have written this year.

    Pictured are our students hard at work thinking up names and titles for the collection of work. It was a fun, noisy evening as everyone put forward suggestions and debated them.

    We were joined by the new Programme and Partnerships Manager (Yorkshire), Ali Johnson who said “It was great to meet the cohort, what a fantastic bunch.”

    We have decided on the title ’Silence is the Loudest Sound’. Watch this space for further updates and the launch date.

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  • Students Librarians​​​​​​​

    Published 09/03/23

    On the 1st March four of our students started their journey towards becoming School Library Association Student Librarians, a nationwide recognised training course.

    They are training for the First Award, which includes desk duties, shelving resources and customer services.

    They all have a blue shield shaped badge, so when you come into the library and need help you can easily recognise the official Student Librarians.

    Each student has a Pupil Librarian Toolkit where they can record their progress and achievements.

    Mrs Blashill said “These students all work incredibly hard during their own time, their help towards the smooth running of the library is invaluable. I am sure they will be celebrating achieving the first level very soon.”

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  • Royal Society Book Awards Event 7th March 2023

    Published 08/03/23

    Our students who have made up the judging panel for the 6 shortlisted books gathered in the library for the all-important awards ceremony. We were joined by Miss Christinea from Bradford Libraries who has been our head judge and chair for the panel.

    Over the past few months the panel have read and reviewed the books, as a school we voted ‘If the World Were 100 People’ as our overall favourite book, but we were about to find out which book had been voted number 1 across the country.

    All the writers and illustrators were interviewed and we had the opportunity to ask questions, we joined in a quiz to see how much information we’d remembered from the books (we all did really well and had high scores).

    Pictured here are jubilant scenes when the winning book was announced, it appears that lots of schools agreed with us and voted ‘If the World Were 100 people’ as their top book. All the shortlisted books and a display can be seen in the library.

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  • World Book Day 2023

    Published 02/03/23

    This year there will not be any book tokens for World Book Day, instead you need to
    click the button below:

    Click here to access your voucher

    You can download your token which supermarkets and bookshops will swap for one of the World Book Day books, or allow you £1 off the cost of a book.

    The school library will have a number of books to give away on World Book Day, or you can join in with themed quizzes and competitions.

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March 2023