Tag Archives: author visit

Author Visit – John Young

Award-winning author, John Young visited Calderhead High School on 30 May 2019. John’s first novel, Farewell Tour of a Terminal Optimist, won the Scottish Teenage Book Prize earlier this year.

This novel tells the story of Connor and Skeates who make their way across Scotland to visit Connor’s father in HMP Shotts. We successfully applied to the First Minister’s Reading Challenge for funding to hold creative workshops with our S3 pupils and were delighted that John agreed to come along to the school to speak to our S3 pupils about his book.

John also held a creative writing workshop with Mrs Galloway’s S3 English class and discussed the writing process and his inspirations with them. The class are currently enjoying reading the book and at least one pupil remarked that it was the best book they have ever read! Special mention to Megan who could not resist reading ahead to find out what happened next but has promised not to give any spoilers.

Thanks must go to the First Minister’s Reading Challenge and the Scottish Book Trust for funding these events and to author John Young for his excellent talks.

World Book Day 2019

Happy World Book Day!
Martin Stewart

We started our celebrations earlier this week when author Martin Stewart came into speak to our S2 pupils on Monday. Martin gave a great talk about how he became a writer and the inspiration for his books, before reading an extract from his latest novel, “The Sacrifice Box”.  This visit was part funded by the Scottish Book Trust as part of their Live Literature programme.

World Book Day 2019
World Book Day 2019

World Book Tokens are being distributed to all the pupils in the school and are available to uplift from the Library. Here are just some of the £1 World Book Day books you can ‘buy’ with your token, as well as using it to get £1 off a full price book.

We are also running a World Book Day competition. This year the prize will go to the funniest joke and the best book review about a funny book. The competition closes next Friday (Red Nose Day).

Read to Succeed at Calderhead – Author Tour

As part of North Lanarkshire’s  Read to Succeed initiative,  every S1 pupil, in all of the North Lanarkshire schools, is being offered the chance to attend an author event.  Each author will speak to the whole S1 year group about their books and the inspiration behind their writing. They will also encourage the pupils to continue to read and to write creatively.  

The author, Bali Rai, is coming to Calderhead High School on 19th September 2018 and will talk to all our S1 pupils in the Assembly Hall,  followed by a writer’s workshop.

Bali Rai is a well-established, award-winning and hugely popular author and has written many excellent novels for teenagers and young adults. He grew up in a deprived area of Leicester and has been writing short stories and poetry since the age of eight. Bali’s writing is firmly grounded in the reality that he has seen around him since he was a child and often deals with difficult issues.

He has also published novels with the dyslexia friendly publisher, Barrington Stoke.

 

Please see the attached letter for more information.

CHS PDF Link
S1 R2S Letter

 

 

 

 

If you would like to learn more about the Read to Succeed initiative, please click here

Authors Live

Pupils from Calderhead High School, accompanied by Ms Faulds and Mrs Lumsden, had the opportunity to join the panel at the recent Authors Live event at the BBC in Glasgow.

Authors Live is a series of live webcasts filmed by BBC Scotland Learning and presented in partnership with the Scottish Book Trust. They feature some of the most prominent authors, poets and illustrators, and the webcasts can be accessed on the BBC website.

This latest Authors Live event talked about unheard voices in the writing industry and the barriers that stop diverse voices from being heard. The panellists included Alex Wheatle, author of the award-winning Crongton sequence, Scottish rapper Dave Hook from hip hop band Stanley Odd, and Anni Cameron, poet. As well as the discussion, pupils enjoyed raps from Dave Hook and Alex Wheatle reading from his latest novel ‘Straight Outta Crongton’. S4 pupil, Heather Duncanson, asked the panel whether they felt that they had to be role models for teenagers and you can see their response on the BBC site. Pupils were gifted books and were delighted to have these signed by the author and poets.

Pupils were also treated to a tour of the BBC after the event. They enjoyed lunch in the BBC canteen and had great fun spotting famous faces. They also managed to see the newsroom and the various departments, including BBC Bitesize, which will be familiar to our senior pupils preparing for prelims at the moment.

We would like to thank the Scottish Book Trust for choosing our school to attend this event and to the BBC (especially our excellent guide, Kimberley, who was a font of knowledge about the BBC).

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Book Week Scotland – Jenny Lindsay

Book Week Scotland is a national celebration of books and reading. Initiated by the Scottish Government and supported with funding from Creative Scotland, Book Week Scotland is delivered by Scottish Book Trust. The theme for Book Week Scotland 2017 was ‘nourish’.

We successfully bid from funding which enabled us to organise a visit by the poet, Jenny Lindsay. Jenny visited our S3 and S4 pupils during Book Week Scotland and explained how reading fiction and poetry can help your mental health. She also spoke about how creating your own work can be massively beneficial. The pupils  had an opportunity to try writing their own poetry and we were very impressed by the results! The school was also able to buy some books to add to the ‘Shelf Help’ section of the library, which contains books on health and well-being, including mental health issues such as exam stress and anxiety.

 

Author Visit – Gill Arbuthnott

Author, Gill Arbuthnott, visited Calderhead High School on 14th September and spoke to our S1 pupils.

Gill has written many novels and non-fiction books and gave us a fascinating talk on her writing and the inspiration for her stories. You can find out more about Gill on her website and join the waiting list to borrow her books from the school library!

This talk was part-funded by the Scottish Book Trust as part of the Live Literature initiative.