ILLUSTRATION WORKSHOP…
Earlier this term, Year 8 students Sean and Elliot went on a road trip to Swindon Central Library to attend a workshop with local author and illustrator Steve Antony https://www.steveantony.com/ - their prize for winning the in-school LitFest Illustration Competition back in November.
"When I found out that I had won the competition for the school, it felt amazing. Our prize was to attend a creative workshop with Swindon author and illustrator, Steve Antony. We attended the workshop on Thursday 27th February. When we got there, we introduced ourselves to the other schools participating. We got the opportunity to learn how to create and illustrate our own stories. It really was a day to look back on." Elliot, Year 8
Mrs Day & Mrs Dry
TERM 3 & 4 IN THE LRC…
It was a New Year New Books kind of start to term 3 and our students tastebuds were tempted with over 40 new books added to the catalogue. Information Literacy and Study Skills sessions have been delivered over both terms - cross curricular lessons with RE (Year 7) Geography and Science (Year 8) and History (Year 9) have focused on research skills, specifically focusing on the importance of identifying keywords, refining search techniques, reminding ourselves of the many information sources available to us and techniques to evaluate those sources all linked to the topics of Islam, extreme weather and Holocaust Memorial Day. Year 9 have also been learning tips to navigate the minefield that is Fake News – whether that be misinformation or disinformation. Do you know the difference?!
R6 students have been thinking about their time management skills as well as talking about the importance of reading widely as a way to broaden subject knowledge as well as gaining a window on the world. R6 students also registered with our various digital resource subscriptions, including the FT online and JSTOR, a digital library of academic journals, books and primary sources; the latter affording an excellent opportunity to gain confidence and proficiency with a scholarly database used commonly at University.
The big focus in term 4 is always World Book Week and this year mentor groups battled it out with 2 book themed quizzes – The Traitors and The Masked Reader. WBW library lessons for Year 9 focused on censorship and banned books – both past and present with students being challenged to identify from 3 clues, books freely available in the school LRC, that have been banned elsewhere in the world and the reason why. Year 7 had a top time playing “Who’s Coming to Dinner?” trying to guess the book character from the clues left behind. Our World Book Week House “Veg-a-Book” competition invited students to get their visionary juices flowing and make book themed creations from fruit and veg. The results were amazing! The Year 7 Gr8 Book Debate team met their peers from Devizes School and Melksham Oak School for the launch and the week ended with over 550 students in Years 7 and 8 being gifted a book from our pop-up shop in the LRC.
Mrs Day & Mrs Dry