Librarians Speak Out On Climate Change

We are very proud of 3 WGS students who represented the School at this year’s ASCEL Conference. This takes place annually for Heads of Children’s and School Library Services. Thomas (Year 9), Andrew and Jaipal (Year 12) took part in the Libraries, Young Activists and Climate Change panel, where they passionately shared a range of ideas linked to climate action. This included the planning of a story garden in School.

Jaipal also spoke at a conference on the future directions of surrogacy law at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London. This

National Poetry Day

Over 150 11–18-year-olds across the region submitted poems along the theme of ‘The Environment’ in response to a competition set by Mrs Rowley. 25 finalists were invited to perform their work in a Poetry Live Event at School. They also took part in a workshop with rap artist, poet and author, Breis. Breis is a dynamic Nigerian rap artist based in the UK and is the author of Brilliant Rappers Educate Intelligent Students was as a result of being chosen as the West Midlands winner of the BBC Young Reporter Competition for her report covering surrogate births. Jaipal was one of 6 young people invited to a young persons’ panel to share their lived experiences of surrogacy. Well done Jaipal!

Congratulations to six students from Beacon Hill Academy, Codsall Community High School and Wolverhampton Grammar School who were all presented with prizes for their thought-provoking poetry and powerful performances.

Mrs Rowley is delighted that many students are keen to follow in Jaipal’s footsteps and is running BBC Young Reporter club during Tuesday lunchtimes. A large number of students from Year 7 to Upper Sixth are currently conducting interviews and undertaking research to share the news stories that they feel passionate about. We look forward to seeing their final video reports in the Spring term.

Discover Reading Project The Tiger Who Came to Tea

Following the success of the Wolverhampton Children’s Book Award, we launched a new award in conjunction with King Edward’s School, Birmingham, to inspire teenagers to read Young Adult fiction.

The titles shortlisted for the inaugural Two Cities Book Award were:

• The Upper World by Femi Fadugba

• Unraveller by Frances Hardinge

• Never Forget You by Jamila Gavin

• Medusa by Jessie Burton

The winning author, Jamila Gavin was revealed at the Two Cities Book Award Ceremony at King Edward’s School on Wednesday, 7th December. Hundreds of votes were cast, and over 150 young people from a dozen schools across both cities were in attendance to meet, listen to and question the shortlisted authors.

Following last summer’s launch event for the Discover Reading Project, we have been continuing our work to inspire families across Wolverhampton to read for pleasure. A group of Reading Ambassadors from Lower Sixth have been trained by Professors at Southern Connecticut State University to deliver the project. Our latest event saw families from Merridale Primary School, Caldmore Primary Academy and Glenthorne Primary School join a Tiger Who Came to Tea inspired party. As part of this event, children undertook craft activities, singing and rhyming challenges.