S1 pupils on Friday were treated to an informative presentation by Scottish author Allan Burnett.

Allan gave an enthusiastic presentation on “Invented in Scotland” with numerous links to Scottish Scientists.  He did a fantastic job of combining the history and the connection with where we are now, e.g James Watt, steam and turbines and Napier, logarithms and computing.  He had lots of new facts too including informing us that the humble digestive is a Scottish invention!

Allan’s visit coincided with a week of activities for S1 pupils as part of a wider cross curricular project on Great Scottish Scientists.

The shortlisted books for the Grampian Children’s Book Awards are;

The Ultimate Truth            Kevin Brooks

Charlie Merrick’s Misfits   Dave Cousins

Say her Name                      James Dawson

Blood Family                        Anne Fine

Thirteen                                Tom Hoyle

The Wall                                William Sutcliffe

The pupil book review form is available here –  2015 Book Review Template

A large selection of National 5 and Higher revision guides are now available to borrow from the library.  

The school were again delighted to welcome our Patrons of Reading Metaphrog back to deliver a series of hands-on workshops over two days with S2 pupils. Celebrating Book Week Scotland, pupils enjoyed fun sessions creating their own Christmas themed characters.

Northfield Academy are currently in the second year of a three year Patron of Reading partnership with graphic novel writer/illustrators John Chalmers and Sandra Marrs of metaphrog.  This partnership will allow the school to work with metaphrog to raise the profile of graphic novels and reading for pleasure with pupils, parents and staff in a scheme which “adopts” authors/illustrators.

As a result of a successful funding bid to the Scottish Book Trust we will again welcome metaphrog back in Feb / March 2015 to work with the current S1 on an ambitious cross curricular Great Scottish Scientists project.  The visits will be part of a wider cross curricular school initiative to research, plan and draw a short graphic novel about a famous Scottish Scientist. Three comics will then be photographed frame by frame and music composed to create several short films.

We are very privileged to be paired up with metaphrog. Their visits have inspired and encouraged youngsters through the medium of graphic novels. The partnership on both sides is evolving into something truly great.

You can follow what metaphrog are up from their blog – http://metaphrog.blogspot.co.uk/

The well-known author and film maker Matt Dickinson was in school on Monday 27 October giving an inspirational talk to S1 – S3 pupils about his ascent of Everest and how pupils should themselves aspire to be the best they can be.

Dickinson is famous for climbing Mount Everest’s notorious North Face in 1996 with Alan Hinkes, beating hurricane force winds and temperatures of minus 70 degrees Celsius. The film producer was on Everest to film Brian Blessed as he made a third attempt of the summit.  Ironically, Dickinson set out not to climb the world’s highest peak, but just to film it. His task was to record as much of the expedition as he physically could before handing over equipment to a professional climber who was to film on to the summit. Matt Dickinson’s drive and determination however meant that he went on to become the first British film-maker to film on the summit of Everest and return alive.

His film Summit Fever has been seen by more than twenty million people worldwide. He also wrote the  book ‘The Death Zone’ about the same expedition. Recently Matt has started writing fiction for teenage readers. His latest novel “The Everest Files” is an adventure story set on Everest.

The inspiring talk was well received by staff and pupils.  He spoke openly about the Everest expedition showing breath-taking pictures taken on the ascent. Pupils were most amused to hear that he ate 300 toffee crisp bars on the Everest trek to keep up vital sugars levels! He also joked about the Everest weight loss plan losing a kilo a week on the mountain.

The talk also touched on the human tragedy of Everest and of the bodies of climbers who died trying to achieve their dream.

Female explorers were also a focus of his talk. He was keen too to emphasise that it was not just “men in beards” that climbed mountains. The talk ended with a short film capturing Alan Hinkes as he reached the summit of Everest.

His film Summit Fever has been seen by more than twenty million people worldwide. He also wrote the  book ‘The Death Zone’ about the same expedition. Recently Matt has started writing fiction for teenage readers. His latest novel “The Everest Files” is an adventure story set on Everest.