BBC Young Reporter

Throughout the term, members of BBC Young Reporter Club have been finalising their entries for this year’s competition. It has been fascinating to learn about the news stories that matter to our community. This year’s entries include topics surrounding musical theatre and a lack of engagement from boys, the impact of food allergies on eating out, and the link between heading a football and dementia. As part of this year’s research, we have supported our students to undertake interviews with specialists.

Young Reporter members interviewed the UK Executive Director of the Concussion Legacy Foundation and OW Alastair Norton, who successfully established his own theatre company after graduating from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

On Tuesday 31st January, students visited Heavenly Desserts in Wolverhampton to interview an allergy specialist. In addition to gaining a valuable insight into how they safely prepare food for customers suffering from nut allergies and coeliac disease, students were treated to a selection of their delicious desserts.

Stories of Hope

Other interviews have seen BBC

Towards the end of term, we were excited to work with BBC Young Reporter to put on an event during National Careers Week. Students from St. Peter’s Collegiate School, Codsall High School, Aldersley High School and Coppice Performing Arts School joined our Year 11 for a day of media skills. Topics included finding out about fake news, disinformation and the tools to help navigate news; content creation sessions, podcasting and information about the skills and experience needed to work in the creative industries. Activities and workshops were delivered by a range of BBC staff from BBC News and local radio, alongside BBC Academy trainers.

Monstrous Fun with Guilherme Karsten

Jenyns Library

Over 500 children in Years 3 - 11 from across Wolverhampton entered this year’s Wolverhampton Young Authors’ Prize competition, organised by WGS librarians Mrs Rowley and Mr McAllister. They were asked to write an original 400-word short story based around the theme of ‘Hope’. 108 Finalists from WGS and seven local schools were invited to attend the Grand Final which was held in Big School on Tuesday 14th February.

Award-winning children’s author, Cliff McNish, attended the event to share his advice with the budding young authors and to announce the winners who have had their stories read and recorded by Cliff himself. Cliff is best-known for his debut fantasy series The Doomspell Trilogy which has been published in 26 languages worldwide.

Congratulations to Dylan in Year 4 who won the Year 3 – 5 category, with his wonderful short story Cinammon lost at the train station, and Siya who came runner-up. Elinor in Year 11 was also judged Highly Commended. The winners were delighted to have their stories recorded by Cliff and to receive their trophies. You can read their winning entries on our school website.

Guilherme Karsten delivered a monstrously entertaining presentation to children from Reception to Year 2, along with visiting pupils from Merridale Primary School. As an author and illustrator, Guilherme’s work has been published in over 15 languages. His books have also won worldwide recognition with awards such as the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava (BIB)’s Golden Plaque in 2019, the Golden Pinwheel Grand Award (China) in 2019, and the Jabuti Award for ‘Best Illustrated Book’ (Brazil) in 2021.

Guilherme’s event marked the UK launch of his latest book, Are You a Monster? The event featured a draw-along, an interactive story time and a visit from a very special monster from Guilherme’s book.

On Wednesday, 1st February, author Andy Jones visited the Junior School to share his latest book, Bob vs the Selfie Zombies, with children in Years 4 and 5. Andy’s inspiring presentation was filled with creative writing tips, humour and zombies! Children left the event fully enthused to discover more about Bob’s time travelling adventures. Thank you to Merridale Primary School, Christ Church Junior School and St Bartholomew’s Primary School for joining us for this event.