Calling all budding writers! Festival of the Sea has a writing competition open to all ages, including school children and adults! The theme is “What will future archaeologists say about our time?”  Primary 1-4 are asked to write a poem, Primary 5-S2 the lyric of a song, S3-S6 and adults to write a short story on the theme of around 1,000 words.

Closing Date Friday 18th May.

 Prizes include:

•             £90 in Calmac vouchers!

•             Historic Environment Scotland family membership!

•             £30 voucher for Sealife Adventures Oban!

•             Books from Kilmartin House Museum!

•             Viking necklaces!

There will be readings and adjudications at the Festival itself which will be held on Saturday and Sunday 26/27th May at the Ocean Explorer Centre 11.30 – 16.30. Our family-friendly event will explore the impact of 21st century living on the marine environment and what this may mean for future human generations. Oban scientists will share the latest insights into human impacts on the marine ecosystem, locals and artists will exhibit their creative responses and entrepreneurs showcase latest technological solutions. And you can even visit the Historic Environment Scotland Viking Invasions event being held on the same weekend next door at Dunstaffnage Castle.

The Scottish Book Trust are looking for event partners to help organise events during Book Week Scotland 2018 which will run from Monday 19th – Sunday 25th November. There is a short Survey Monkey application form for funding of up to £325 per event. It’s a great opportunity to drive forward reading for pleasure in your school and can help support the First Minister’s Reading Challenge.  Details can be found here.

World Book Night will be on Monday April 23rd. To mark Word Book Night in Oban this year, there will be a special showing of the new short documentary ‘Dyslexia: Educate Me’ followed by a short discussion. There will be an opportunity to find out more about dyslexia generally Dyslexia Scotland, and what support is available locally. See link below for the event flyer.

World Book Night 2018

Are you interested in finding out what your pupils think of poetry? The National Literacy Trust’s new Pupil Poetry Survey, for pupils aged nine to 18, explores children and young people’s consumption and creation of poetry. If your school takes part, you’ll receive a free report on your pupils’ attitudes towards poetry. For more information visit https://literacytrust.org.uk/contact-us/pupil-poetry-survey/?mc_cid=63bbc428c6&mc_eid=d2642508a6

March 8th is International Women’s Day. Why not celebrate some remarkable women with these book suggestions from the Summer Reading Challenge?

https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/news/general/wonder-women?utm_source=The+Reading+Agency&utm_campaign=a3a5c503bc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_03_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ef82b5d6fa-a3a5c503bc-82196361&mc_cid=a3a5c503bc&mc_eid=15550f4feb

World Book Day is coming up on Thursday 1st March. The National Literacy Trust havea  range of resources to support you in the classroom or at home including activity sheets, lesson plans, discussion guides and more. You can find them by following this link: World Book Day resources

Thursday 1st February sees the first of our annual literacy and numeracy cluster twilights. We’re kicking things off in Oban this year with a range of workshops for practitioners to choose from, including presentations from the Royal Society of Chemistry, Read Write Inbc and the First Minister’s Reading Challenge as well as homegrown workshops on the current literacy and numeracy P1 pilots, talking Maths in ELC and a discussion on closing the gap, facilitated by the educational psychology team. A full list of workshops can be found here: List of workshops

The event will run from 1615 (coffee at 1600) to 1830 and will be held at the Oban pirmay campus.

If you’re coming it’d be good if you could confirm attendance by following this link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/OLI2018

The week beginning Monday 27th November is Book Week Scotland and there’s lots happening across Argyll and Bute. Attached is a poster with some of the main events across the region, including Chris Brookmyre at the Corran Halls on Thursday 30th. Or why not try the free non-stop hip hop workshop featuring Loki, on Saturday 2nd December? There’s also a whole host of virtual events that you can get involved with. Tweet what you’re doing using #BookWeekScot and #Argylland ButeLiteracy. Enjoy!

Argyll and Bute Events – Book Week Scotland 2017

Book Week Scotland 17 Virtual Festival Schedule

Hip-hop

Love being creative? The Scottish Book Trust has 2 exciting competitions for teenagers,  with a submission date of February 2018 so there’s lots of time for you to put together an entry. The first is their graphic novel competition where you need to create a comic strip adaptation of one of the books the Book Trust have shortlisted for their teenage book prize. Or you could enter their Book Trailer competition where you’re asked to create a book trailer for one of their shortlisted titles which will be shown on their website. Both competitions have a closing date of 5pm on Thursday 8th February – there’s even time for you to enter both! Further details can be found at: http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning/teachers-librarians/the-scottish-teenage-book-prize/2018-competitions  

Why not tweet your reading successes to @FMReadChallenge or check out what other schools have been tweeting at the FM Reading Challenge page.

Join in with their Halloween Twitter competition on 31 October by tweeting them a photo of your pupils reading in their scariest costumes or wearing their scariest expressions.