Primary age pupils in the Woodingdean area of Brighton are celebrating World Book Day on Thursday 5 March by showing off their reading and writing skills to three published authors and getting tips on how to write books.
The celebration, jointly organised by Woodingdean Primary School and Woodingdean Library, is entitled ‘Inside Us All There Is a Writer Trying To Get Out’.
In the morning authors Julie Middleton, David Fuller and Sue Durrant will talk to the children about how they became authors and how they go about writing stories. They will then run workshops helping the children to let their ‘inner writer’ out and start writing their own books.
At lunchtime the authors are visiting the library, where children who once struggled with reading will read to them and other library users.
These pupils have all benefited from the school’s Reading Recovery scheme, which offers intensive 1-1 sessions with specialist reading teachers to children who need extra support. Daniel Tyler-Dibley - pictured above with his mum Michelle - is one of many pupils who have made fantastic progress through the scheme.
The event is above all a day of fun with fancy dress, drama and art activities, door dressing and bookmark making.
In the afternoon parents of children in the reception class are being invited to a ‘Big Bedtime Read’ with pupils reading them stories.
The event has been organised by Woodingdean Primary’s Reading Recovery specialist teacher Kathryn Coleman, who is pictured (right) with one of her current pupils, Leo Hagland, and his mother Helen Jones.
Kathryn said: "It’s incredibly rewarding to be able to help children who struggle with reading, and to see their joy when they master it. Above all, our World Book Day event will be about the joy of reading.”
Brighton & Hove City Council coordinates the Reading Recovery and Every Child A Reader schemes across the city. The chair of the council’s children and young people committee, Councillor Sue Shanks, said:
“Reading is at the heart of all learning. “It’s the most important skill of all for children to master, and events like this are a lovely reminder of the great work all our primary schools and specialist reading teachers are doing in this area.”
Every Child A Reader and Reading Recovery are national schemes approved by the Department for Education.
- Julie Middleton is a children’s TV script writer and author of ‘Are the dinosaurs dead, Dad?’
- David Fuller is the author of the Alfie Jones books
- Sue Durrant has just signed a book deal with Nosy Crow and will have her first novel published next year, with a second to follow in 2017. Michael Morpurgo's publisher is now her agent.