Over 1 week, we have taken 149 students to see 7 inspirational talks, had 6 students perform and had 65 books signed at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

On Monday, a group of year 7 students went to see Hillary McKay talk about her heartwarming WWI novel, Skylark’s War. That same afternoon, 50 year 8 and 9 students witnessed Kit De Waal and Kiran Millwood Hargrave discuss how their novels address the forgotten female voices from classic literature. 

Wednesday saw one of our brilliant year 8 students get to the final round of the Dystopian Battle of the Books, championing We See Everything by William Sutcliffe. A group of year 7 students were truly inspired by Candy Gourlay’s discussion of her novel ‘Bone Talk’.

And in the afternoon, a small group of year 9 writers attended a workshop which gave them ample ideas to get them writing their own dystopian novels!

On Friday, a group of KS4 students attended a talk by Patrice Lawrence, an excellent YA fiction writer. Later that morning, five of our students who have been actively involved in the Words That Burn project in conjunction with Amnesty International performed their powerful poem about all the changes they’d like to see in the world. 

It has been a busy week but many wonderful memories were made. 

Miss James
English Department