We are especially pleased to be celebrating our annual Book Week during the National Year of Reading and our students have enjoyed a variety of literary treats between 2nd and 6th March.
Acclaimed author, Lisa Williamson, visited our Year 9 students on Tuesday 3rd March for a fascinating talk about her journey to become a published writer plus an interactive writing workshop. Having been absorbed by the creative writing process as a small child, Lisa moved into an acting career as a teenager, taking part in shows as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and Peter in Peter Pan. Her next move into advertising commercials promoting products such as Marmite and a cruise line peaked with Lisa securing a role in arguably the pinnacle of brand promotion, the John Lewis Christmas advert, Monty the Penguin. Lisa’s advice that writing is a muscle and you just have to keep using it to get better, is clearly well founded since Lisa has written over 20 books for young adults and children. Her debut young adult novel was an Instant success with ‘The Art of Being Normal’ (2016) winning the Waterstones’ Children’s Book Prize for best older fiction.
Lisa shared her talents with the Year 9 students in the Austin Lecture Theatre with a workshop that encouraged students to think about creative writing in new exciting ways. Tobias enthused: “It resparked an old interest in me that I had for writing stories. We did ‘Two Truths and a Lie’, where we used detail to try and confuse our friends with small details that they might not necessarily know, which taught us how to create great mystery”. Ruhan felt: “It was really fun and helped me understand how to write a variety of genres so they stand out. This was made even better by Lisa Williamson’s quite engaging tone!”
Throughout the week the Library Team have hosted a Book Shop in the Non-Fiction Room, with a huge variety of books available to purchase by our students. Time was dedicated for students to explore the Book Shop during English lessons giving everyone to read the recommendations from staff across the school. The ‘Love your Library’ board attracted a variety of positive comments including “I love that it is so calm and relaxing”, “It feels like home’, “I like the comfy chairs’, “It helps me learn”, “The Librarians are very nice” and “I love that the Library is open to everyone.”
Even Oakview joined in the celebrations creating a fabulous ‘Alice in Wonderland’ themed lunch on Thursday 5th March, World Book Day. Decorations included over-sized playing cards, quotes from Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece, a tabletop quiz for students to complete over lunch, and an enormous Cheshire Cat cake!
Book Shop organiser and Librarian, Rebecca Feghali, commented: “Reading can be truly transformative. The books we read – from primary school to senior school and even into adulthood – shape who we are, who we want to be and the wonderful things we might do. Our World Book Day event with author Lisa Williamson this week was a brilliant reminder to be curious, creative and to follow our passions.”
You can see more photos from Book Week on our online gallery.
Take the next step by selecting an option below, or if you want to drop us a quick message, you can do so with the form.
Δ