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Preparatory School Library Events

The Pre Library offers a variety of events during the school year including activities to celebrate World Book Day, book fairs and talks from visiting authors. The Pre has been host to many authors, illustrators and storytellers over the past few years. These have included; Joanne Harris, William Nicholson, Robert Muchamore, Alan Gibbons, Rebecca Lisle, Michelle Paver, and Chris d’Lacey. We are also one of the schools that participate in the newly developed Bath Children’s Literature Festival in September each year; Jenny Nimmo and Kevin Crossley-Holland have visited the school as part of this festival.

Book Week 2012

To celebrate World Book Day and our love for reading in the Pre, the Library is pleased to be hosting another annual Book Week. From 5 – 10 March 2012 we will be running activities for everyone to get involved with.

Monday 5 March - Storyteller Saikat Ahamed starts the week off spinning tales from Norse mythology for Year 5.
Tuesday 6 March – Dress up as your favourite book character to raise money for Book Aid International. By donating £1 you can help send books to children in Africa.
Thursday 8 March – Book Fair for all children.
Friday 9 March – Author Elizabeth Laird will be coming to visit Years 6, 7 and 8 who are all quite excited as she is a very popular author at the Pre.

Getting into the Olympic spirit, we will also be running a Library Marathon Quiz and Olympic Values Bookmark Competition over the week for those wishing to test their literary and artistic skills! Entries must be in by Saturday 10 March.

PAST EVENTS AND AUTHOR VISITS

During the autumn term we have been lucky enough to host some fantastic author events for students across the Pre. In October we invited local environmental poet Martin Kiszko to run a workshop for our Y4 students on National Poetry Day, and were visited by the wonderfully energetic children’s novelist Caroline Lawrence a few weeks later who spoke to Y4, 5 and 6. To wrap up the term, screenwriter and author William Nicholson paid Y7 and 8 a visit, enthusing them about fantasy fiction.

National Poetry Day & Martin Kiszko – 6th October 2011

To celebrate National Poetry Day 2011 the Pre Library invited local environmental poet Martin Kiszko to run a workshop with Y4 students. Martin performed a selection of poems from his collection Green Poems for a Blue Planet which was illustrated by local Wallace and Gromit celebrity Nick Park. I particularly liked his rendition of Garbage Queen as one lucky student got to don Martin’s cloak made of recycled items, as well as hold an old fishing rod sceptre and wear a soft drinks can crown. The workshop section of the event saw the children composing their own poems in the style of a ‘Clerihew’ on recyclable materials such as plastic bottles, cereal boxes and tin cans. The visit was very much enjoyed by all the children; some individuals had even written their own poems beforehand to read to Mr. Kiszko complete with props!

Caroline Lawrence – 20th October 2011

Roman enthusiast and novelist Caroline Lawrence came to visit Y4, 5 and 6 to talk about her popular Roman Mysteries series of children’s books and her new Western Mysteries series. Caroline gave a very lively performance and her selection of Roman and Western themed props were greatly appreciated (especially the spittoon and sponge on a stick). She gave an informative insight into the process of writing a novel, as well as story and character construction. It was a very entertaining afternoon and Caroline motivated the students so much that her books were sold out by the end of the event!

William Nicholson – 29th November

To end what has been a jam-packed term, the Library was delighted to present author and screenwriter William Nicholson, who came over from Surrey to talk to Y7 and 8 about his popular fantasy books for young people, The Wind Singer Trilogy. Set in a dystopian fantasy city called Aramanth, the characters of The Wind Singer are ruled by an examination board and must sit annual tests no matter how old they are to determine their place in society. The theme of the book struck a chord with the children, as did William Nicholson’s obvious passion for writing, and the students asked lots of mature and intelligent questions at the end of the session.

Book Week events - 28 Feb-5 March 2011

All last week the Pre have been celebrating their own Book Week hosting a whole range of events in the Library and around school. From a repeat of last year’s successful bookmark design competition, a murder mystery quiz and a treasure hunt in the Library and a book fair to mark World Book Day.

On Monday, We also invited celebrated children’s novelist and brain specialist, Nicola Morgan, to talk to years 7 and 8. She enlightened the students with details of the inspirations behind her novels including, of the gruesome truth behind medical operations in the nineteenth century, the focus of her book, Fleshmarket. We were lucky enough to have Nicola stay on in the evening to enlighten parents and staff about her other specialism, the complexities and nuances of the teenage brain.

On Tuesday, a shocking murder took place in the Library, which offered the pupils the chance to enter a competition to decode and solve the case. All the clues to the quiz could be found on the shelves of the Library and, with the help of some grisly exhibits, the murderer was uncovered. This day proved overwhelmingly popular with the children who took to the spirit of the quiz with great imagination and determination.

A treasure hunt ensued on Wednesday with students gathering clues hidden within the resources of the Library to uncover the long lost treasure buried amongst the Library’s recycling!

The book fair for World Book Day on Thursday, took place throughout the day in the Library. Pupils were able to visit the fair during break times, lunch times and after school and this was met with immense enthusiasm from the children who took every opportunity to browse, buy and read. The fair provided children with the chance to buy books from a wide-range of quality mainstream publishers suitable for the children’s age groups and the selection generated much appeal and excitement.

Finally on Friday, environmental poet, Martin Kiszko, came to perform his poetry to the years 4, 5 and 6. His talk inspired many students to go away and write their own poems with an environmental theme and perform them. Mr Kiszko was so impressed with some of the poems that he wrote a poem to celebrate their work entitled, Ode to Clifton Prepoetry School. Please see below:

Tracy (T.M.) Alexander - 4th November 2010

Tracy (T.M.) Alexander visited years 4 and 5 on the 4th November 2010. The pupils enjoyed a creative writing workshop where they developed their own mad cap stories and which will hopefully inspire them to imagine and write down new stories. The first two books in the tribe series were available for the children to buy and we so popular that we sold out! We will be looking forward to welcoming Tracy back to the Pre for an event for parents in our Book Week in March.

Philip Reeve and Chris Bradford

Please see the news story about Philip Reeve's visit on 29 September, and Chris Bradford's visit on 7 October

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