Tobermory High School is one of 10 schools across the UK to win a £1000 prize in the Siobhan Dowd Trust’s “Spread the Joy of Reading” Campaign (www.siobhandowdtrust.com) Schools were invited to share initiatives which have encouraged reading and a love of books. 

“At Tobermory we want to make reading visible and high status, and particularly to show men reading, so we decided to film the whole school reading ‘The Gingerbread Man’ to tie in with World Read Aloud Day.  Pupils, teachers, and support staff read a line each, and the finished film was shown at a celebratory assembly.

“Following this success we decided to tap into the Rugby World Cup, and filmed members of the local rugby club, whose members include former pupils, reading Kipling’s ‘If.’ S1, S2 and all school rugby players watched the Scotland-Georgia match, and ‘If’ was premiered at half time, accompanied by bacon rolls. Our rugby development officer followed the match with a coaching session, and a discussion about the way matches are reported in the media, including newspapers and magazines.

“We celebrated World Book Day with a rendition of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ – again the whole school took part, and we continued the reading theme with a whole school Drop Everything and Read.”

The Judges particularly loved the idea of truly involving the whole school, and visitors too.  The Judges were impressed by many of the entries, and had a large number of good submissions so it is a real credit to the school to be a winner.

Sue & Lynne

Tobermory High School.