Four girls from y3 and Y4 managed to achieve their gold certificates for completing all three levels of our super learning power challenges for their year groups. Well done Katelyn, Louisa, Klea and Macie. To do this, they have managed to be recognised three times over ( Bronze, Silver and Gold) for being Cooperative Cats, Brave Bears, Positive Penguins, Progress Pigs, Imaginative Iguanas, Curious Camels, Concentrating Clownfish and Perseverant Pugs. This really isn’t easy to do!
In order to reward them, we took a trip to the wonderful Seven Stories in Ouseburn, Newcastle so that they could all choose a book for themselves to keep as a reminder of how proud we are of them. Not only did we say that they could select a book, we also planned to have cake and juice while reading some of the books on offer and to have a quick look around Seven Stories juts to get a feel for the place and what it had to offer because it really is an amazing place for anyone who is interested in illustration and in reading or writing books.
This was treat enough and the girls were extremely excited; however, when we arrived, we were met by a very interesting gentleman who welcomed us and started to chat to the girls about why they were there. Well, the conversation flowed both ways smoothly, with the girls confidently explaining their achievements and saying which authors they enjoyed and which books they were going to look at. Our new friend then revealed himself as a creative director at Seven Stories and also as an author, whose books could be found in the bookshop. He explained that he had lived in the North East as a child and that he was very interested in stories linked to this place. The one that he showed us was titled Polonius the Pit Pony. It did look very good so we bought a copy for our library at school. When we looked Richard up to find out more about him, we found that he is from a Travellers background , brought up in a large, traditional , Romani gypsy family and that many of his family members worked down the pits. We always tell our children that they can turn their own life experiences and tales into stories and become authors themselves. Richard proves that this really is true. If you want to know more about him, here’s a link:
As if this wasn’t enough, we also bumped into Wendy Elliott, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Seven Stories. She also thought the girls seemed very interested in stories and wondered if our school might like to work with Seven Stories doing some writing and performing workshops. We have our fingers and toes crossed that this might happen in the future! Here is a link to Seven Stories website for you to see what is happening there.
Maybe you could plan a visit in the summer and discover more about the world of books. Maybe, one day, your book could be sold in their bookshop!
So, back to our four winners. They got to have a wonderful afternoon finding out more about what is out there in the world for them and feeling proud of themselves because they know they have achieved. Because we happened to be there at that time and because they were friendly, positive and curious, we now know of another local author and maybe school will have the chance to work on our own storytelling in the most imaginative and creative ways in the future. You never know where opportunities lie, which is why it is always so important to be ready for them with a big smile, an open mind and positive thoughts. The world is yours ; anything is possible.
The girls chose four great books, all quite different, and they have promised that when they have read them, they will give us all a review and let us know if these are books that we should have in our library too.
Next school year, we all begin working for our next set of Super Learning Power certificates in our new year groups. Aim for gold everyone and let’s see how we celebrate next year !