Authors Live (Scottish Book Trust) | Creativity Portal Case Studies

ABOUT

The Authors Live programme exploits cutting-edge technology to bring the best children’s authors to children, young people and their parents across the UK. The project broadcasts children’s author events live over the internet, in conjunction with the BBC. The events are also recorded and available to watch and download from the Scottish Book Trust website.

The project successfully engages parents in sharing the same high-quality arts activity their children take part in at school. Video recordings of the events are available to watch and download from the Scottish Book Trust website.

The Scottish Book Trust provides teachers resources for each event suitable for the age group and stage of that particular event before-hand. The resource features activities for preparation for the event, links to the actual event and suggestions for activities to follow the event up. Each resource also clearly signposts links with Curriculum for Excellence and covers experiences and outcomes across all appropriate levels and in a wide range of curriculum areas. You can visit the Scottish Book Trust Events Glow group to watch our events through Glow Meet.

There are links to the live events and more at the foot of this page.

PURPOSE

Scottish Book Trust’s main objectives for the Meet Our Authors programme are:

– to meet soaring demand for the best children’s author events
– to allow as many children as possible to participate, no matter where they live or what their economic circumstances are
– allow teachers to access transformational events from the comfort of their UK classroom, at no cost to the child or school

The aim is to introduce pupils to the great quality literature that is available and for them to understand the connection between the books they enjoy and the person who wrote them. A further aim is to support pupils to understand the benefits and pleasures of discussing books with their peers, parents and teachers, and build up a relationship with their favourite authors.

To date the programme has featured a wide range of top authors, including Julia Donaldson, Michael Rosen, David Walliams, David Almond and many more. Two further events are planned with Polly Dunbar and Tony Robinson: schools who register to watch will be entered into a prize draw to win one of five class sets of the author’s books for each event.

Accessing the author events were:

– 32 local authorities
– c. 105,000 children and young people (Michael Rosen)
– c. 82,000 children (Julia Donaldson)

IMPACTS

Feedback from events:

– “Great to involve children directly. My children felt very special to be spoken to by Julia herself!” (Teacher, Niddrie Mill Primary School)
– “We really enjoyed the event and all the children loved the song and the visit from the Gruffalo. We had used the ideas from the teacher resources and had been focussing on Julia’s books for a few weeks before the event so it made a great climax to our work.” (Teacher, Burravoe Primary School)
– “It was wonderful to be able to provide an event for World Book Day without breaking the budget.” (Teacher, Coleraine High School)

The events have provided a stimulus for some fabulous teaching practice. Whether you just want to dip in and do one activity, or you want to do an extended project, Scottish Book Trust have resources and case studies to help you. Visit the ‘Get the Most Out of Our Programmes’ section of Scottish Book Trust’s site for more information.

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