Children from Forthview Primary School and their families have created their very own story book. ‘Whose Egg Is It Anyway?’ was launched at a special reception at the City Chambers yesterday, where Education convener Paul Godzik praised the children for their ‘fantastic work’. Continue reading ‘Fantastic’ Forthview!
new ad campaign to support childrens’ literacy and numeracy
Parents and families have a key role to play in helping their children to read, write and count well and a new TV and supermarket-based advertising campaign has been launched to encourage and help parents to support their children’s learning beyond the classroom. Continue reading Help them shine
Read all about it: Local primary school is first to complete Scotland’s library card challenge
Following the Scottish Government announcement that every child in Scotland should get a library card, Muirhouse Library, Community Learning & Development and Pirniehall Primary School have sprinted out of the educational blocks! Continue reading Pioneering Pirniehall!
‘Libraries are often the hub of a local community’ – Cabinet Secretary for Culture Fiona Hyslop
She may be too young to read, but Halle Edwards has become Edinburgh’s youngest library member – at the tender age of three weeks! Continue reading Meet Halle – Edinburgh’s youngest bookworm!
Donate books for children at Broughton High School
Donating children’s books to be distributed in the run up to Christmas is the latest phase of the City of Edinburgh Council’s pioneering child poverty campaign.
The ‘Hungry for Books’ challenge is part of the council’s ‘1 in 5: Raising Awareness of Child Poverty in Edinburgh’ campaign currently running in five primaries and one secondary school.
The purpose of the initiative, taking place during Book Week Scotland, is to highlight links between child poverty and low literacy.
The public are being encouraged to donate high/good quality children’s books this week (up to Friday 27 November) which the pupils will then ensure go to food banks or other relevant organisations in time for Christmas.
Each school will be a hub for donation of books in different areas of the city – Broughton High School (north), Royal High Primary School (east), Sciennes Primary School (central), Gracemount Primary School (south), Dalry Primary School (west) and Hillwood Primary School (south west).
Councillor Paul Godzik, Education, Children and Families Convener, said: “The ‘Hungry for Books’ challenge is a positive way of trying to help more children living in poverty access the type of books other children enjoy. It is well-documented that children from poorer backgrounds lag behind at all stages of education so it’s important we do all we can to close the attainment gap.
“Donating books for children to read, both on their own and with their parents, is a positive way for the public to play their part in achieving this.
“The Council will continue the great work of our ‘1 in 5’ campaign to ensure every child in Edinburgh is given every opportunity to have the best possible start in life.”
Dalry Primary School Head Teacher, Grant Gillies, said: “The ‘1 in 5’ project has had a significant impact on the life of our school and the decisions we make because the children and families in our school community face real challenges. It is our job to equip them with the skills and aspirations to overcome these.
“More than that though, as a school we have social responsibility to ensure opportunities are for all and they are inclusive. That’s why pupils are very excited about being part of this Hungry for Books Challenge.
“Another good example of the impact of raising awareness within our school project is when we planned for our whole community outing at Christmas. We spoke about the way we charged for it in the past and this year we have a price structure that means bigger families pay less. It is these small things that make a difference.
“Small changes in our approaches make for big changes in our children’s lives.”
The ‘1 in 5’ project aims to raise awareness of the impact of child poverty and identify best practice and changes that can be introduced to make school more affordable for families on low incomes. The project involves working with children, staff and parents to challenge the stigma that affects children living in poverty.
Last week a poster competition was launched at Hillwood Primary School where pupils took part in creative art workshops led by artist Heather Lucchesi to design images which highlight some of the issues faced by children whose families live on or below the poverty line.
Winning images will be incorporated into a poster to be distributed to primary schools across the city along with guidelines for schools on how best to support families living on low incomes including actions to reduce the costs associated with school such as school uniform, trips and resources.
Councillors on the Education, Children and Families Committee heard last monththat just over 21% of children in Edinburgh live in poverty and this figure is forecast to increase significantly by 2020.
Every area of the city is affected with each Council ward having child poverty rates of over 10%. It’s estimated that the cost of delivering services to address the impact in the Capital is around £156m a year according to the which outlined various actions being taken by the Council to lessen the impact. Key areas identified include:
Other actions include increase breakfast club provision and further develop family engagement with a focus on strong home-school partnerships.
The report also highlights the importance of income maximisation to raising attainment. Research has shown that the level of household income plays a major role in attainment levels with more initiatives needed to increase wages, encourage take up of unclaimed benefits and other finance-related poverty costs.
Granton and Craigroyston Early Years Centres ‘brought books to life’ at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre this morning – and top children’s author and illustrator Nick Sharratt joined in the fun and spread some magic too!
‘Bring Books to Life’ aims to excite imaginations and encourage parents to
read and explore books with their children. Accessibility to books in early
years significantly boosts literacy, emotional wellbeing and helps children to
thrive in later life. Reading is the key to a child’s future: it unlocks their potential and opens up a world filled with possibilities and, for our poorest children, reading well can be their best route out of poverty. It was heartening, then, too see such a great attendance of parents, carers and children at the Royston Wardieburn event.
Books can be truly magical things. Above all, reading stories should be FUN, and Nick Sharratt’s visit ensured it was fun all the way!
Nick, author of best-selling children’s books ‘Shark in the Park’, ‘Ketchup on your Cornflakes’ and ‘The Foggy Foggy Forest’ read from his books and took part in a drawing session with the children at the event – and the kids loved it!
We knew a lot about Londoner Nick before his visit. He’s illustrated close to 250 books, ranging from board books for babies to novels for young teenagers. He’s worked with authors including Julia Donaldson, Jeremy Strong, Michael Rosen, Giles Andreae, Kaye Umansky, Kes Gray and Dame Jacqueline Wilson and he’s also written around 40 of his own books, quite a number of which have won awards.
He was the official illustrator for World Book Day in 2006, he’s the proud owner of a gold Blue Peter badge and he now lives in Edinburgh. And we learned today that Nick loves cheese and lime pickle sandwiches!
So we all learned something new today – reading, fun and learning really do go together!
Lots more pictures on our Facebook page!
‘There is nothing like a library to make you smile’: Forthview’s Patron of Reading opens school library
‘I love being an author. The best bit is writing stories and adventures, but I love lots of the other bits of being an author too. I enjoy redrafting and I really love working with editors. I love meeting readers and talking about my books too. But the one bit of being an author that I really don’t enjoy is … getting my photo taken!’
Edinburgh-based author Lari Don called in to Forthview Primary School this morning to officially open the school’s new library. Award-winning writer Lari, who became the West Pilton school’s Patron of Reading in May last year, said the new library offers ‘endless possibilities’.
Before welcoming the Lari and guests, Forthview Head Teacher Eileen Littlewood explained: “One of the first things I wanted to do when I came to Forthview was to re-open the school library, which was being used for other purposes.
“We were able to do this thanks to funding from the Scottish Government’s Raising Attainment for All initiative along with a grant from the Foyle Foundation. Our parents have been so much help in planning and putting the library together, so we have a lot to celebrate today.”
Cutting a ribbon to mark the event, Lari told the children: “I always feel happy when I walk into Forthview, because I always meet kids with amazing imaginations so I’m always smiling.
“But today, I came into the library and I just couldn’t stop grinning. Because there’s nothing like a library to make you smile, to make you feel endless possibilities – and you have got the most beautiful, the most spacious, the most cheerful, the most colourful, the most magical library and I really hope you all enjoy it! And now, I’m so happy to declare the Forthview Library open!”
Official duty performed, Lari went on to host a workshop for Forthview’s young writers. And yes, she had her photo taken too!
“When a child connects to a book – even if it’s a book that we as adults might not care for – it can really change the course of that child’s life.” – Dan Pilkey, author
Tasty treats were on the menu at the launch of this year’s popular Green Pencil Award writing competition yesterday, when Carrick Knowe Primary School pupils were joined by leading children’s author Vivian French for a food-themed story workshop.
This year’s Green Pencil theme is ‘Food for thought: Scotland’s food and drink’. Entrants can write a poem or story about a favourite meal, or a memorable Scottish picnic, a drink they love or hate, or perhaps even invent a new Scottish food!
Or they could think about the journey of a vegetable from being planted as a seed to ending up as part of a delicious, nutritious meal.
Budding writers can get inspiration by visiting local libraries, which have lots of ideas and books to help, and also by asking in schools, which have resources available to support this award.
All entries can be made by following this link and should be no longer than one side of A4 – entries longer than that cannot be considered.
The closing date is Friday 9 October, with an awards ceremony at the Central Library in late November.
Councillor Richard Lewis, Culture and Sport Convener, said: “The Council has been running this competition for eight years and it grows in popularity each time. We have so many budding writers with fabulous imaginations in our schools, and reading the entries is always a joy for our library staff.
“Reading skills are such vital aspects to learning, but also a really fun way of doing so. Thanks so much to Vivian for bringing it to life so vividly for these lucky pupils. Good luck to everyone who enters.”
Ms French said: “I love the Green Pencil Award, because it encourages children to look at the world around them, and to think about things they might otherwise take for granted.
“It inspires curiosity, consideration, and critical judgement … essential ingredients for everyone – especially writers!”
Edinburgh-based authors have dominated the shortlist for the 2016 Scottish Children’s Book Awards, with four out of the nine shortlisted authors hailing from the city.
Emily MacKenzie, Elizabeth Laird, Danny Weston and Joan Lingard are all up for the prestigious awards, which celebrate the most popular children’s and young adult books by Scottish authors or illustrators.
Run by Scottish Book Trust with support from Creative Scotland, they are Scotland’s largest book awards with a total prize fund of £12,000 – the nine shortlisted authors and illustrators receive £500 per book, and the three winning books receive £3,000 each.
Emily MacKenzie, who lives in the New Town and studied Graphic Design at Edinburgh College of Art, has been shortlisted in the Bookbug Readers (3-7 yrs) category for her debut picture book Wanted! Ralfy Rabbit Book Burglar, published by Bloomsbury.
She was recently shortlisted for The Independent Bookshop Week Children’s Picture Book Award and her second book, Stanley The Amazing Knitting Cat will be published by Bloomsbury in January 2016.
Commenting on her nomination, Emily said: “I was absolutely over the moon when I found out that Ralfy had been shortlisted for the Scottish Children’s Book Awards!
“The book has had such a warm response from teachers, librarians and the children I’ve read it to so far which has been really lovely, but the idea that a further 64,000 P1 children starting school in Scotland this year will receive a copy of it to enjoy and hopefully help them on to a path of loving reading and books as much as I do, blows my mind. It’s a dream come true and Ralfy and I want to say a big thank you to Scottish Book Trust for all their support!”
A free copy of Emily’s book will be gifted to every Primary 1 child during Book Week Scotland, in the Bookbug P1 Family Bag, along with copies of the two other shortlisted books in the Bookbug category.
This bag was produced by Scottish Book Trust in conjunction with Education Scotland and the Scottish Government as part of Read, Write, Count – a new literacy and numeracy campaign aimed at children in Primary 1 to 3.
Elizabeth Laird, based in the Old Town, has been shortlisted in the Younger Readers (8-11 yrs) category for her book The Fastest Boy in the World, published by Macmillan.
Elizabeth, who has previously appeared on the 2008 and 2010 Scottish Children’s Book Awards shortlists, is an award-winning author of children’s fiction and travel. She has written over 30 books for children and has been shortlisted five times for the CILIP Carnegie Medal, including for The Fastest Boy in the World this year. She has been nominated by UK IBBY for the international Hans Christian Anderson Award, and her new novel, Dindy and the Elephant, was published in June. Elizabeth now lives with her husband, splitting their time between London and Edinburgh.
Elizabeth said: “It’s a thrill and an honour to be shortlisted for the Scottish Children’s Book Award. ‘The Fastest Boy in the World’ is an Ethiopian lad called Solomon, who dreams of joining the ranks of the great African running champions. Now, thanks to this lovely award, he’ll be running all the way round Scotland. Go Solomon!”
Danny Weston, who lives in Tollcross, has been shortlisted in the Older Readers (12-16 yrs) category for his book The Piper, published by Andersen.
He has published three novels (under the name Philip Caveney) with Edinburgh-based publisher Fledgling Press. These are time travel adventures, all set in Edinburgh at different points in its history. The first book Crow Boy is set in Mary Kings Close, Seventeen Coffins is all about the tiny coffins found on Arthur’s Seat in 1836 and the most recent book,One For Sorrow, is all about Robert Louis Stevenson.
In the New Year, Fledgling will be bringing out The Calling – a novel featuring all the statues in Edinburgh. The Piper was also recently shortlisted for the North East Book Award.
Commenting on his nomination, Danny said: “I was surprised and delighted to hear that I had been shortlisted for this prestigious prize. At a time when the importance of literacy seems to be increasingly challenged, prizes like this mean more than ever to authors like me.”
Joan Lingard, who lives in Edinburgh’s New Town, has been shortlisted in the Older Readers (12-16 yrs) category for her novel Trouble on Cable Street, published by Catnip.
Joan has been a published writer for young people and adults for over 40 years and is best known for the Kevin and Sadie books, set in Northern Ireland at the time of the troubles there.
Her popular Elfie and Joe trilogy began when she discovered that her grandfather had run a pub in Stoke Newington in London and she started to research that area around the turn of the 19th Century when he and his wife lived there.
Following a conversation with a friend about the period between the first and second world wars, Joan began to research the impact of the Fascist movement in London in the 1930s, and the parallel conflict in Spain.
Joan said: “I’m delighted that Trouble on Cable Street has been shortlisted for the Scottish Children’s Book Awards. I have been writing for young people for over 40 years and I am always pleased to know that readers are enjoying my books.
“I enjoyed writing this book very much. It is set in a fascinating, unsettled time in Britain’s history – and European history – and the more I read about what happened in the 1930s the more I found parallels with some of the problems we’re facing today, eight decades later.
“In 1936 the communities of the East End of London rallied to stop a march by Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists. They clashed with the police in Cable Street and the march was eventually stopped, but many people were injured in the fighting.
“I always enjoy writing strong characters, and once I’d settled on Isabella and her two brothers their story fell into place against the backdrop of London in those difficult times.”
THE FULL SCOTTISH CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARDS 2016 SHORTLIST:
Bookbug Readers (3-7 years)
Younger Readers (8-11 years)
Older Readers (12-16 years)
Over the next five months, children the length and breadth of Scotland will be reading the three shortlisted books in their age category and voting for their favourite.
The voting deadline is 5 February 2016. The three winning books will be announced at a special award ceremony on 4 March 2016.
Jasmine Fassl, Head of Schools at Scottish Book Trust, said: “The Scottish Children’s Book Awards are a perfect way to celebrate Scotland’s talented authors and illustrators, while also helping participating children to develop an independent love of books and reading.
“Hundreds of schools and libraries from literally every corner of Scotland involve tens of thousands of children in reading and reviewing the shortlisted books every year, proof of both the eagerness of Scottish young people to make their voice heard and of the quality of the shortlisted books.”
Leonie Bell, Director of Creative Development at Creative Scotland, added: “The Scottish Children’s Book Awards is a hugely successfully programme that celebrates children’s and young adult literature while also encouraging reading in children across Scotland.
“The fact that the winners are selected exclusively by children makes this an extra special award to win. By taking an active role in choosing the vote they are taking steps in their journeys as independent readers.
“This is a fantastic shortlist and we encourage young people across Scotland to get involved. We look forward to finding out who they choose as this year’s winners.”
The Scottish Children’s Book Awards also encourage budding authors or journalists to put pen to paper: the popular Book Review Competition offers pupils the chance to win book tokens, sponsored by Waterstones, and an author visit for their school.
Aspiring film makers can enter the book trailer competition to showcase their digital talents and win book tokens for their school. Scottish Book Trust provides extensive learning resources for teachers on how to create book trailers.
CALL Scotland has again worked with Scottish Book Trust and the publishers to create accessible digital versions of the nine shortlisted books for children and young people with physical, visual and reading or dyslexic difficulties, who can’t read the paper books. The accessible digital versions of the shortlisted books are available free of charge from CALL Scotland.
You can request books by going to http://www.callscotland.org.uk/Home/.
Pictures: Rob McDougall
Play Talk Read bus is heading to West Pilton
Wednesday 24 June
