Pupils attend Creative Writing Awards ceremony

On Wednesday 23^rd June pupils from across all five of the Bishop’s Primary School campuses attended a creative writing awards ceremony at Cramlington Library. The event was hosted as part of a yearly writing competition at Bishop’s Primary School which challenges pupils in Year 5 and 6 to write creatively under titles set by real authors.

The ceremony was hosted by Stuart Reid, author of the ‘Gorgeous George’ series, who spoke to our pupils about his creative ideas, how to structure a story they were writing and where his passion and enthusiasm originated. There was then a chance for a Q&A and even a reading from one of Stuart’s new books!

It was a fantastic morning, thoroughly enjoyed by all pupils. Well done to all the runners-up and winners of the creative writing competition who received a £5 book token and certificate at the event.

The afternoon then saw Stuart visit Grace Darling Campus to deliver two author talks to some of our pupils who again got to question him on the process of becoming an author. They thoroughly enjoyed the experience and are hoping to follow in his footsteps in becoming published themselves!

 

Thousands of books consumed as part of Accelerated Reading competition

In the last 4 weeks of the Summer 1 term, competition was in the air across all five of Bishop’s Primary School’s campuses. Each campus received a delivery of brand new books all related to sports including books about football, basketball, American football, BMXing, rugby, gymnastics, dance and more. These were delivered to drive reading for pleasure for all of our primary learners. Pupils were able to read the new books and also the current stock already on campus and then take a quiz on these books.

The campuses competed against each other for who had the highest ‘engaged reading time’ and Grace Darling came out on top with an amazing average of 35 minutes per child per day! Well done Grace Darling who received an extra box of books as a prize and an author visit later in the month!

In total, the competition saw an incredible 4,694 books being read and successfully quizzed 4 weeks. An excellent effort by all involved!

 

Reading Planets Challenge at Grace Darling Campus

At Grace Darling Campus, we love reading! At the start of the school year we started a reading challenge. We challenged our children to read 50 times at home. A lot of children have been reading regularly, we are so proud of our children for taking part in our Reading Planets Challenge. Several children have reached the final planet this week which means they have read 50 times at home! This is an amazing achievement. Well done to our children and parents. The children were presented with a certificate and book. We are looking forward to giving out more certificates very soon!

 

Bishop’s Primary School selected to take part in pioneering diversity project with The National Centre for Children’s Books

Despite the fact that 33.5% of the UK’s school aged population come from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, only 7% of children’s books published in the last three years have featured a minority ethnic character.

As part of a drive to readdress the balance and increase the cultural diversity of the reading material available to its pupils, Bishop’s Primary School has been accepted to take part in a pioneering project with Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020, the diversity project and fundraising campaign aims to give visibility to works by authors from BAME communities, which feature more diverse characters to help increase understanding and provide a stepping stone for teachers to encourage discussions around race and equality.

Bishop’s Primary School was one of 33 North East primary schools to benefit from the project. Since December, packs containing a range of diverse storybooks suitable for young readers have been delivered to all five of the school’s campuses in South East Northumberland in time for National Storytelling Week (30 Jan – 6 Feb), to the delight of the staff and pupils.

Mr Jack Christophers, Director of Literacy at Bishop’s Primary School, commented:

“At Bishop’s Primary School, we believe that our pupils learn so much through the stories they interact with and this is reflected in the fact that all of our pupils enjoy story time as part of their daily timetable. We also believe that education on matters such as diversity, equality, race and religion should start from a young age.

“Through the project with Seven Stories, we are delighted to be able to combine these two beliefs. By ensuring that we have a culturally diverse supply of stories to share with our children, we can actively support their cultural understanding and personal development.

“On behalf of all of the staff and pupils I’d like to thank Seven Stories for all of their hard work in putting this project together. Our campus libraries are now much truer reflections of the world around us and will benefit our pupils for years to come.”

John Coburn, Creative Director at Seven Stories, commented:

“At Seven Stories we believe that children’s books are a powerful way to open up conversations with children about a range of topics, including diversity, equality and racism. By supporting this fundraiser, we’re helping North East primary schools – including Bishop’s Primary School – to grow the diversity of their book collections and in turn, inspire young minds with new voices and experiences that might otherwise be missing from their bookshelves.”