Hello

I am writing to you to invite you and your school to be part of a new competition and fundraising campaign designed to support Suffolk families and schools across the County.

I represent local family support charity ‘Home-Start in Suffolk’ based in Martlesham. We support families in crisis experiencing a wide range of difficulties including disability, mental health issues, isolation, poverty, domestic abuse and physical health problems through our volunteer led home visiting and telephone services.

We are inviting your school to join other local primary schools in our activities fundraiser which is being championed by two of our patrons, author Anthony Horowitz OBE and Suffolk actress, Miranda Raison alongside Suffolk author Vibeke Flatman and is supported by Suffolk County Council and Ipswich Embroidery and Print.

Anthony Horowitz Anthony Horowitz is one of the most prolific writers working in the UK – juggling writing books, TV series, films, plays and journalism. Anthony has written over 50 books, including bestselling teen spy series Alex Rider, which is now a major television series on Amazon. In 2014 he was awarded an OBE for his services to literature, and in 2019 became a Patron to Home- Start in Suffolk.

Miranda Raison is a stage and screen actress and has had roles in BBC’s Spy drama , Disney’s Artemis Fowl movie, , Agatha Christies Poirot, Thomas & Friends to mention just a few. In May 2020 Miranda became a Patron of Home-Start in Suffolk.

Vibeke Flatman is a local author and artist and published her first book ‘At the end of the rainbow’ in 2019. This book (which has a story line in verses and acrylic painting as illustrations) was pilot tested in schools across Suffolk in 2019, so you may already be familiar with it.

The competition – this will set out in 2 age ranges.

Years 4 to 6 pupils will be able to listen to Anthony Horowitz reading an Alex Rider short story (video) This will be followed by a task, where we are asking children to create their own ‘super villain’ from the ‘Alex Rider’ series of books by Anthony Horowitz. We will provide all the paperwork needed for this and we can also provide some additional activity sheets for schools to use within the class.

Nursery to year 3 pupils will be able to listen to Miranda Raison read ‘At the end of the rainbow’ (video). This will be followed by a task, where we are asking children to create a drawing featuring Alvin (the main character of the book) in a scene from their own imagination. We can also provide some additional fun activity sheets for schools to use within the class featuring characters from the book.

To join in this exciting competition, we will be inviting teachers to show the video to classes. This would then be linked to the competition and can be used as a fun extra activity for the children to join in with in the lead up to the summer break.

Winners – we will be judging each age category and selecting the top 10 entries who will win:

Nursery - Year 3 Year 4 -Year 6 A signed copy of ‘At the end of the rainbow’ A signed copy of an Alex Rider novel by Anthony Horowitz A goodie bag A goodie bag

There will be two overall winners across all schools – one from each age range and the prizes will include:

Nursery - Year 3 Year 4 -Year 6 A £25 Voucher for Dial Lane Books A £25 Voucher for Dial Lane Books A limited edition handmade soft toy of Alvin, featured in A signed BOX SET of 11 Alex Rider books by Anthony Horowitz Miranda's video A signed copy of ‘At the end of the rainbow’ A board game A board game A goodie bag A goodie bag

A personalised letter will be sent out to the 2 overall winners of each age range from the Authors too.

Something for the school library

And the top 10 schools with the highest % of entries (based on each of the school’s individual population) in each of the 2 age categories will receive a signed copy of a book for their library!

Fundraising

The competition is to raise awareness of Home-Start in Suffolk as a charity and we hope to also raise vital funds for our organisation to ensure we can continue to provide support to Suffolk families in this challenging time.

If your school would like to take part, we are asking that you include a small fundraising element to this activity. Parents would be asked to make an optional minimum donation of £1 to support Home-Start in Suffolk which could be paid via parent mail if the facility is available and could coincide with the day that the school set the challenge or could be part of a special dress down day for example.

We are suggesting this takes place around May to give all schools time to get their entries in and give us the time to judge and deliver winners prizes before the end of Summer term.

We hope that you would like to join in with this exciting fundraiser which will encourage a love a reading and has the extra special link to our beautiful Suffolk county!

For more information on our charity please visit www.homestartinsuffolk.org and please do get in touch with any further questions.

To sign up your school click the icon:

Best Wishes Alison Watson Home-Start in Suffolk - 01473 621104 [email protected]