World Book Week 2024 at Castle Court

WORLD BOOK WEEK

A WEEK TO CELEBRATE OUR LOVE OF READING AT CASTLE COURT

FUN COMPETITIONS FOR ALL AGES

VISITING AUTHORS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

WELCOME

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TOP TIPS FROM THE LIBRARY

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OUR ELOQUENT ELODIE!

7-10

INTRODUCING OUR VISITING AUTHORS

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MESSAGE FROM PRE PREP

12-13

MESSAGE FROM PREP

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COMPETITIONS AND WORLD BOOK DAY REMINDER!

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“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” ― George R.R. Martin Reading is something that forms part of the foundation of any school, and here at Castle Court, we work hard to foster a love of reading within the school starting all the way from Badgers through to Year 8.

In this growing age of technology, the art of sitting down to read is sometimes lost for what appears to be more exciting and instantly gratifying pursuits. In the build up to World Book Day on the 7th March of this year, I would encourage every Castle Court family to embrace the culture of reading in this month.

With this in mind, we at Castle Court have some ideas for you: Read a book as a family every night!

If your child is an avid reader already, encourage them to try a different genre or a different author.

Listen to an audiobook.

- Kirsty Thompson

Reading

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GREETINGS FROM THE LIBRARY!

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Mrs Gollings (our Librarian) has some top benefits of reading to share.

Children who read frequently will: • be transported to other places • begin to form opinions (and gain an understanding of the opinions of others) • develop a sense of humour • become acquainted with people, characters (personified animals who talk and behave like humans) and their emotions • develop empathy • ‘visit’ parts of the world (and other worlds!) they had no idea existed • develop their imagination • learn facts • make links between their own and other people’s lives • become discerning readers, make informed choices increase their vocabulary

Ideas to promote reading: Anything from poetry to instruction manuals, magazines, comics, biography, fiction, history, information – it’s a lifelong resource. You can do it anytime, anywhere. Also, listen to audio books - in the car, at bedtime etc.

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OUR ELOQUENT ELODIE!

Elodie is one of our Year 7 pupils who has a passion and flair for creative writing. Last year, she won our internal creative

writing competition run by local author Helen Michaelsen.

After finishing our class reader, Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo, Elodie decided she didn’t think the ending was quite right or how she had imagined it, so she decided to write her own epilogue, providing an ending she felt would be more fitting for the characters and storyline she had grown to love. In lieu of World Book Day coming up, we thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to share her incredible ending, and to interview one of our very own budding authors. What made this experience even more exciting, was that Michael Morpurgo read her epilogue and was able to send our very own Elodie some feedback! This is an incredible achievement, and we are so proud of her!

Q&A

Q: When did you start enjoying writing?

Elodie: I don’t know exactly when I started, but I was brought up around books! My grandma is an English teacher, and she has always exposed me to different books and encouraged reading from a very young age. When I turned 11, she had a massive box of books waiting for me to read and I have now read nearly all of them.

Q: How did Michael Morpurgo get an opportunity to read your Q: What is your favourite genre of books?

story, and how did it feel that he responded in writing?

Elodie: My favourite genre is murder mysteries and historical

Elodie: My grandparents have a mutual friend of Michael

novels. I like that in historical novels, it is about something that

Morpurgo’s and when I’d finished writing the epilogue they

actually happened - it is like you are there and it gives you a totally

suggested that I send it to him. Receiving an email from Michael

different understanding of the event. I got into Murder Mysteries

Morpurgo himself was fantastic because it felt like I received

when I read the series Murder most Unladylike, which was set in

confirmation that I was on the right track. When you do sport, for

the Victorian era which got me interested in this genre. I loved the

example, you have medals to show what you can do, but with

suspense and the fact the author could take me on a journey and

writing, it isn’t so easily measured, and to have him respond in

manipulate my thoughts as I read.

such a kind way, made me feel like I could pursue my writing and have it recognized.

Q: Do you prefer writing stories or poetry?

Elodie: I started writing with rhyming poetry, and from there I

Q: How do you come up with these amazing ideas when you

attempted to write a novel in Year 4…but that didn’t work. I much

write?

prefer writing short stories and poetry! Maybe one day I will write

Elodie: I think I make a mind map in my head subconsciously, and

my own novel.

when I write, it comes really easily. I feel like the words just flow onto the page. I will get into a ‘writing zone’ and then I can work

Q: Tell me why you decided to write the epilogue to our class

really efficiently and creatively.

reader, Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo?

Q: What is your next writing project?

Elodie: Because I didn’t feel that the ending was sufficient enough

Elodie: I am going to take it as it comes. Michael Morpurgo

as it ended on a cliffhanger and I wanted to complete it. I wanted

suggested I write another epilogue to one of his books, so I may

a happy ending that suited the book, not a cliched ending, but

start there!

one that I felt wrapped up the story satisfactorily. As I love writing, I felt this was a good challenge that I felt ready to attempt!

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ANOTHER PEACEFUL An Epilogue by Elodie, for Michael Morpurgo’s ‘Private Peaceful‘ ‘Another Peaceful. What in God’s good name have I done to deserve this? First your father, and then your uncle, and now you. Know this, Thomas Peaceful: here, I am your Lord and Master. You must not lie, must not cheat and must not blaspheme. Never come to school in bare feet. And you’ll stay quiet if you know what’s good for you. Do I make myself clear?’

‘Yes.’ ‘Yes what, Peaceful?’

‘Yes, I understand.’

Ma told me not to do anything to aggravate Mr Munnings, but I can’t resist. Watching his face cloud over with anger, I can almost hear the thwacks of the cane on skin. I don’t care. Ma said that Pa hadn’t even cried out when he was caned. I’m as brave as him. I can show it. I look down. My shoelaces are untied.

Ma tried to teach me, but I still don’t quite understand it. I look up again.

‘Yes Sir, Peaceful, you idiot boy!’

‘Sorry. I’ll remember next time. Sir.’ I shake my dark fringe off my face and grin. Ma always says that I look like my Pa when I do that. Mr Munning’s face stiffens, locking in a snarl.

‘Peaceful! In here! You’re about to discover the most important lesson you’ll ever learn at this school: discipline.’

He shows me into his office and picks up a cane hanging on the wall. He is purple, like the plums Ma cooks.

‘Bend over, you obnoxious boy.’

I bend over. Now I am grinning at the floor.

‘Next time – thwack - you – thwack – act like – thwack – this – thwack – just think of your Father.’

My grin snaps off my face.

‘He was always a – thwack – rotten egg. And he got – thwack – shot for it. Ha! The coward: he deserved it.’

That is a lie. A lie as rotten as any bad egg. My Pa didn’t deserve what he’d got. Ma says it over and over again. She says it every Sunday when she lays down flowers where there can be no grave. She says it every time she sees a lark, or a church tower. Oranges and Lemons, and humbugs and planes make her eyes glisten with tears. Those tears, the ones I know she keeps in throughout the day can finally be released, along with a great sigh, in the evenings when she takes a stained bundle of letters out of a drawer in her dressing table. They’re brown and tied with string that’s worn from being untied, retied.

She’ll read those letters as if for the first time, and then talk to them. She’ll talk to them about her day, my day, what the weather was like – as if they can hear her worries, wonderings and wishes. And they do.

When her account of the day’s complete, she’ll heave another great sigh, retie the string and place the bundle back into its drawer. Sometimes she sits, as if waiting for the right moment to become happy again, become her again. But she always does, bouncing out of her room and rushing to tickle me until I can hardly breath for laughing. She lives in two worlds, flicking from one to the other like the wind, like a butterfly or candle.

Thwack – ten. ‘The whipping may be over, but mark my words, Peaceful: this isn’t the last of it. You are a menace, a rude, blasphemous menace. What are you?’

Silence.

‘What are you?’ Spit flew from his mouth, a drop landing on my set jaw.

‘Happy to be here. Sir.’

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VISiTING AUTHOR

ANNELISE GRAY

Annelise will be visiting our Year 3 and 4s online who both have looked at the Romans!

Anneliese Gray was born in Bermuda, moving to Dorset, England with her family when she was 8 years old. After discovering that she loved Greek mythology in school she went on to do her PhD in classics from Newnham College, Cambridge. She has published two books for adult readers about the history of women of the Roman Empire and a crime novel set in ancient Rome (both are written under her name, Annelise Freisenbruch.

The books that our Castellans will have possibly read are her Circus Maximus series which tells the story of a young girl called Dido who dreams of becoming the first female charioteer to race in the Circus Maximus, the greatest sporting stadium in the ancient world. It is an epic take of action, danger and adventure, and she was inspired to write it because of all the horse and pony stories she had read as a child.

CIRCUS MAXIMUS: RACE TO THE DEATH THE SUNDAY TIMES CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK AND LONGLISTED FOR THE BRANFORD BOASE AWARD 2022

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VISiTING AUTHOR

ASHLEY THORPE Ashley will be visiting our Year 6 and 7 pupils looking at diversity in literature and running a mini workshop.

Ashley Thorpe is a Black British debut author who works as an editor at Storymix, where he helps other writers to create epic stories. His greatest wish is to bring diverse characters to life that he would have loved to have seen, but sorely missed, as a young reader.

Penguin Random House Write Now - Shortlisted (2017) Sunderland Story Award - Shortlisted (2018) Thorpe’s debut novel will be available later this year. It is a story called The Boy to Beat the Gods.

Discover a fierce and fun story of one boy versus six gods, from a magical new voice in children's fiction... Kayode dreams of eating the forbidden fruit of the Orishas, so he can gain their power and stop those merciless beings who terrorise his people. So when a fruit mysteriously appears in his path after the Orishas snatch his sister, he leaps on it. Surging with new and difficult-to-control powers, he joins forces with a shapeshifting trickster god and a vengeful princess to save his sister and put an end to the mighty Orishas. But each has more fearful powers than the last - and Kayode's stolen half-god strength won't last for ever...

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VISiTING POET

EMILIE LAUREN JONES Emilie will be visiting our Year 8 pupils inspiring them about poetry

A strong believer that art and creativity are for everyone, Emilie is passionate about making poetry accessible to a wide audience, this is reflected in the projects and commissions she takes part in. As someone who is neurodiverse herself, she believes that seeing the world in a slightly different way is something to be celebrated!

Coventry's First Poet Laureate 2021 - 2023

Emilie Lauren Jones has performed across the UK and internationally. In 2021, the year Coventry became UK City of Culture, she became the city's first Poet Laureate. Her debut children's poetry book, An A to Z of Awesome Animals (Caboodle Press Ltd) was released in October 2023.

Emilie's poetry has been featured on local and national radio, including BBC Radio 3, 4, 5Live and 6 Music. Her poetry has also featured on national television including Sky Arts (as part of the Unlocked series of short films, which was shortlisted for a 2023 Digital Broadcast Award) and BBC4 (as part of Ghosts in the Ruins, which was shortlisted for a 2022 Royal Television Society Midlands Award). She has performed alongside poets such as Simon Armitage, Roy McFarlane and Hollie McNish.

PHOTO CREDIT: RANG-ZEB HUSSAIN

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VISTiING AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR

HELEN AND THOMAS DOCHERTY Helen and Thomas Docherty will be visiting our Reception, Year 1, 2 and 5 pupils running two different workshops.

Helen Docherty has always had a love of reading and writing. As a child, she spent a lot of time either reading or writing stories, and at six she even began making her own books.

“All I needed to keep me happy was a pile of books to read (I was a regular visitor to our local library), some blank paper, a pencil and some felt tip pens that hadn’t run out.” - Helen Docherty

Helen went to Newcastle University to study French and Spanish, and in between being a student she spent time in France, Spain and Cuba. After graduating, she trained as a secondary school teacher and headed out to Mexico City where she found a job teaching French in an International school. She stayed in Mexico for four years, before returning to the UK to do a Masters in Film and Television Production at Bristol University. She returned to teaching for a few years, working with refugees and asylum seekers and then teaching Spanish at the University of the West of England. It was at this time that she met Thomas Docherty (who later became her husband) who had started illustrating his own books.

Thomas encouraged Helen to start writing stories again, and they cowrote the book Ruby Nettleship and the Ice Lolly Adventure (Templar, 2010).

The rest they say is history.

PHOTO CREDIT: HTTPS://WWW.HELENDOCHERTY.COM/ABOUT-ME/

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MESSAGE FROM PRE PREP

In Pre-Prep at Castle Court, we love nurturing our children's interest and engagement in reading.

Our ultimate aim is for these early experiences to foster and encourage a lifelong love of reading. The importance of young children hearing stories to support cognitive development cannot be underestimated. It leads to much improved vocabulary and language skills.

In close partnership with parents at home, exposing children to a variety of books and stories will help improve their imagination and creativity. We also link some carefully chosen books with our writing curriculum for an overall joined up approach to our Literacy. Sharing positive experiences about books helps to create a special bond with children. The positives of reading are far-reaching, and we delight in seeing young people develop into confident readers here at Castle Court.

- Graham Antell

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MESSAGE FROM PREP

Reading is something that is at the heart of our school, and in Prep we value this immensely. We love to see our pupils reading during some of our tutor sessions and the buzz that emanates when new books are discovered in our library. To be transported into another world is a good way to relax and unwind.

We have had fun introducing our reading walls in Years 5 to 8 where our pupils write mini reviews on their reads, and their peers are able to comment and like their recommendations! This has proved popular and it has been wonderful to see what they are reading.

Pre Prep have really fostered a love of reading that we see in our Prep pupils, and many love nothing more than curling up on one of the sofas with a good book! Reading is fundamental to a child’s developing vocabulary and use of grammar, and the benefits can be seen in our avid readers.

Whether you are reading a book, or listening to an audio book, exposing yourself to different storylines and authors is invaluable.

I hope many of our pupils continue to develop their love of reading as they are transported to different places!

- Katie Johnson

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TOP REVIEWS FROM THE READING WALLS

The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

I recommend this series because of the exciting storylines throughout the books and how it is full of action and gore. Another reason I recommend reading these books is reflects some of todays world problems such as the corruptness of todays government and how many people around the world in many different countries are either living in poverty or being forced to fight, like those living in Ukraine. Another thing is how this trilogy keeps you interested in reading it, this is because the story twists and turns and rapidly changes in which direction the story is headed therefore making it more interesting. The moral of this story is that you can't win everything and shouldn't look back at the past, looking forward is the healthiest thing for you. Blurb: Twelve boys and twelve girls are forced to appear in a live event called The Hunger Games. There is only one rule: kill or be killed. When sixteen-yearold Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her younger sister's place in the games, she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before.

- Fred (Year 7)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Greenwild: The world behind the door by Pari Thomson This amazing book is about a girl and her mother travelling across the world on great adventures. The girl in the story is called Daisy Thistledown (age 12) and her mother is called Leila Thistledown. Daisy's dad sadly passed away when she was only a baby but she still went on adventures with her mum (famous journalist). One day her mum decides to go on a trip to the Amazon Rainforest but thinks that it is too dangerous for Daisy, so she leaves her at a posh allgirls boarding school. She hates the matron and is not friends with any of the girls. One day Matron tells her that her mother died in a plane crash in a storm but Daisy just has a feeling that this is not true. Then she finds out that there is a murderer for botanists and journalists. Daisy meets new friends and they try to find out who this murder is and where they put her mum. I recommend if you like nature and mystery. I enjoyed it lots myself.

- Eloise M (Year 6)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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WORLD BOOK WEEK COMPETITIONS We will be running some competitions in this week (4th to the 8th March)

Reception to Year 4 As part of our World Book Week, we invite all children from Reception to Year 4 to decorate a plate in the theme of a book they have read! They can be as creative as they like! This will need to be handed in on Tuesday 5th March.

Year 5 to Year 8 For Year 5 to Year 8 we invite all children to create a “book in a box”. Pupils will be required to represent one of their favourite books in a box. These will need to be handed in on Tuesday 5th March to their English teachers!

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WRITING COMPETITION Calling all 8 to 11 year olds!

The Royal Mint museum is running a short story competition where the winner will win £5000 for their school library and they will have their story illustrated.

Our story competition topic this year is coins and the sea. We are exploring the role coins have played in Britain’s history of seafaring. How they have been used by sailors and traded by merchants, how they have been tokens of good luck or the captured wealth of a rival, and how their role at sea has inspired imaginations from pirates to sunken treasure.

We want you to write a story of no more than 500 words about a ship carrying a cargo including gold coins. The ship sails into a storm and gets into trouble, what happens next?

Look at our inspiration pages for ideas and download our story writing guide to help you (https://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk).

We welcome entries from anyone aged eight to eleven who lives in, and is schooled or homeschooled, in the United Kingdom.

Entrants are asked on the submission form to confirm which school or local library will receive the £5,000 prize if they win.

All entries are to be submitted to Miss T (kthompson@casltecourt.com) by the 25th of March or can 15 be personally submitted by parents to their page on: https://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/

REMINDER PLEASE REMEMBER TO DRESS UP FOR WORLD BOOK DAY AS ONE OF YOUR FAVOURITE CHARACTERS ON THURSDAY 7TH MARCH!

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