Winston Book Week: The Final Chapter
To draw Winston Book Week to a close, we had another author visit, this time for Year 8 on Friday 3rd March. Andy Briggs; author, screenwriter, graphic novelist and producer, came to Winston to hold an assembly for the whole of Year 8 and run 2 creative writing workshops with students who had signed up.
Andy started his assembly by telling us all how he classed himself as a ‘reluctant reader’ when he was at school and that he struggled to find something to read that he really enjoyed. He knew that when he started writing, he wanted to write about things that interested him rather than things similar to those books that he was told to read! He told the students that everything that you watch, whether it’s on the news, on a TV series or even on TikTok will have had some writing behind the scenes! The students were very keen to watch the video of drone racing, a link to one of his books and also found it funny to end up talking about what real bananas were!! Andy also told us about his time in Hollywood where he has worked on the production teams of some big Hollywood films!
Students went back to their classrooms after the assembly and some classes had a go at coming up with their own gadget to solve a daily problem they might be having. Take a look at some of these innovative ideas…
During the creative writing workshops, Andy asked the students to sit in groups with their friends. He said that he works best when he works in ‘writing rooms’ with his friends or colleagues and they all draw on their skills to come up with the best piece of writing. The students were very excited to be working with their friends and all were really engaged in the task they were set. They talked about taking inspiration from something they already like to watch or read and merge it with something else to make a twist on it, for example – The Hunger Games meets The Simpsons!
Students worked in their ‘writing rooms’ to come up with some fantastic ideas such as ‘Mr Johnson and the Last Latin’ and ‘7 days to live’. Andy was so impressed by the students’ work and ideas and loved how they each drew on their strengths to come up with their ideas to present to the rest of the class.
I want to say a huge well done to all students who got involved in Winston Book Week, including those students who entered the Book in a Box competition. See the fantastic entries below from Riley in Yr 7, Polly in Year 8 and Charlotte in Year 8. It was a very hard decision as they are all amazing and the students put so much hard work and time into them. However, the winning Book in a Box was The Giant Jam Sandwich by Charlotte in Year 8. A £10 book token will be making it's way to the winner, along with a £5 book token for the 2 runners up!
