Words Count newsletter.qxp_Layout 1 15/07/2016 10:03 Page 1 Welcome to this special summer edition of Words Count News. It is with great pleasure that we are able to share and celebrate Words Count News all the programmes linked to Words Count. It has been fantastic to observe the staging of such a diverse Summer 2016 range of literacy related activities and it is especially heartening to see the use of language in different contexts Why not increase National News Day and across the community – from fire your own safety to shaking up Shakespeare in The St Lawrence Academy have creative coding workshops. All of vocabulary recently been interviewed on BBC Radio these events, though different in Humberside to highlight how News Day appearance, are united by the belief Download one of the can inspire young people to be a success that language skills and finding Word A Day apps. and believe in their aspirations. One pleasure in reading are fundamental The are many student, Daniel Pollard, spoke about the in enabling people to realise their versions to choose importance of Mental Health and potential and lead prosperous, from, but we reported about the need for young healthy lives. particularly like this people to talk about their issues. ‘Word of the Day’ available FREE from Students spoke about their visit on News I do hope that you enjoy this edition iTunes. This version provides an Day to interview the manager of BBC and that you will be inspired to explanation of the meaning, tips on how England, Helen Boaden. Helen Parker, consider the importance of language to use it within a sentence and helps you St Lawrence Academy in your own environment. I hope that with the pronunciation. Next time you you will be empowered to establish visit the Learning and Development your own activities or become Centre look out for our Word A Day involved in the continued progression feature. of this initiative. Peter Thorpe, Assistant Director Education Read Trailer on the following website: of a wider national event, to help with www.summerreadingchallenge.org.uk both of these issues. Visit the Reading Challenge Facebook and twitter pages for the latest Every year, thousands of families all over updates. the country take part in the UK’s biggest reading event for children in libraries, The Big Friendly Read Keeping children entertained and the Summer Reading Challenge, run by Summer Reading stimulated during the long summer the charity The Reading Agency. Challenge 2016 holiday can be an expensive challenge for families. Also, reading for pleasure This year’s Roald Dahl theme is linked to Roald Dahl 100 to mark 100 years For more information visit: can sometimes take a back seat and be www.northlincs.gov.uk/schools-libraries difficult to re-engage with on return to since his birth. Each child taking part -learning/libraries/children-and-young- school in September. will be given a colourful collector folder people/summer-reading-challenge/ illustrated by Quentin Blake, and for North Lincolnshire library service offers each book they read they will be given You can also watch the Big Friendly a FREE and fun reading scheme, as part a limited edition collector card. L@northlincs Cfacebook.com/northlincscouncil Page 1 Words Count newsletter.qxp_Layout 1 15/07/2016 10:03 Page 2 Words Count in Schools and Settings Wow! How fantastic to see that so many schools across North Lincolnshire took part in this year’s World Book Day celebrations, World emphasising their love of books, literacy and reading for pleasure. Book Days A BIG thank you to all the schools who sent in photographs from their World Book Day Celebrations. Here are some of our Celebrations favourites: We had a wonderful morning at Westcliffe Primary. We had activities in the library, a KS1/KS2 book quiz, fancy dress, story times, a library scavenger hunt and much Winteringham Primary School more. Overall it was a very Westcliffe Primary School successful day! The children had an amazing day and the standard of dress up was extremely high, with some great costumes and ideas. The children completed a treasure hunt where they had to find book titles. All the children in KS1 and KS2 took part and prizes were given to the best dressed. Westcliffe Primary School We organised a competition of staff with their favourite books and the The Vale Academy students had to guess who was behind the books. Not as easy as you think. Other activities included games based on popular books. As you can see from this photo, the competition John Harrison Primary School was hugely popular with our students. Our winner correctly identified 24 out of the 27. Sue Beasley - The Vale Academy South Ferriby Primary School South Ferriby Primary School Page 2 L@northlincs Cfacebook.com/northlincscouncil Words Count newsletter.qxp_Layout 1 15/07/2016 10:04 Page 3 Staff & students We celebrated World Book Day by at Outwood coming to school with our favourite Academy bedtime stories, dressed in our Brumby took pyjamas! Each class studied a poem part in this and then performed it for the rest of year’s World Book Day by dressing up the school in our ‘The Big as their favourite characters. It was Performance’ afternoon assembly. decided that our Year 7 and 8 students could choose to dress up as We spent time reading our favourite their favourite character for the day stories and the day was finished with and it’s safe to say that everyone ‘The Big Bedtime Story’ – all the staff really made the effort. There was lots brought in their favourite children’s of talk about costumes and books books and the children chose which throughout the day. story they wanted to listen to – great Pupils posing in pyjamas with their fun, especially with drinks and Captain Jack Sparrow along with favourite books biscuits too! Woody was at the school gates Some of our other activities included: welcoming students and even Katniss researching popular authors, mini- Everdeen took a break from The book productions, listening to book Hunger Games to visit! extracts and donating books to the school library. All of the characters were the talk of the day, from Where’s Wally to The response was overwhelming and Spongebob Square Pants. over 100 books were gifted. A great day was had by all who took part, although we’re not sure who enjoyed it the most, the students or the staff…. Pupils poring over their monster book Outwood Academy Brumby Staff Outwood Academy Brumby Outwood Academy Brumby L@northlincs Cfacebook.com/northlincscouncil Page 3 Words Count newsletter.qxp_Layout 1 15/07/2016 10:04 Page 4 Bushfield Road Infant School & In February, an employability carousel event took place in Killingholme Primary School school and the six representatives aspiration project & careers from local businesses and Further convention 2016 Education establishments participated in question and At the start of the Spring Term, Bushfield Infants answer sessions with the children. began a new and exciting Employability & The event was attended by Linda Enterprise project in liaison with the Local Ward and Fiona Wilding (Vice Authority, Killingholme Primary School and local Chair and Chair of Governors, author Addy Farmer. The aim of the project is to respectively), Julie Lane and Sarah Tipler. raise awareness of the range of jobs available to young people, to increase understanding of the skills and personal attributes needed to fulfil these roles successfully and ultimately to raise aspirations of young people and their families. The project has Some of the workshops with author been simplified to meet the needs of our Year 2 pupils, and yet is Addy Farmer have already taken place, still challenging and aspirational. As an Early Years and Infant which will result in a published book provider, we are committed to teaching life skills alongside the entitled, ‘I Want To Be’, planned, curriculum and over the last five years we have developed and written, edited and illustrated by the embedded the teaching of six key enterprise skills. children with the guidance and support of Addy and class teachers. The book will incorporate the key There has already been a huge enterprise skills of teamwork, communication, amount of planning and initiative, creativity, finance and positivity which form part preparation involved in the of our curriculum. project and Julie Lane (Lead Officer: School Improvement, A DVD is also being created, to record the journey from the 16-19) has successfully beginning of the project through to the end product, which accessed funding via Hull will take the form of a published book to be issued to each University to support the child in Year 2. Once completed, there will be a book launch programme and fund the activities. She has also and presentation to celebrate the project, linking with the recruited six representatives from a range of different Local Authority’s ‘Words Count’ initiative. employment backgrounds who joined the event to share their diverse range of experiences with the children. Bushfield Road Infants School Killingholme Primary School - these skills. With this in mind, our Integral to our Giving our children the skills school and Bushfield Infants were careers project to fly, but with the belief that approached by Julie Lane and the was the the sky is not the limit! Words Count Project, about the hosting of creation of a unique careers book for our inaugural Like so many schools in our local area, children which would be written by our careers we are acutely aware of how brilliant pupils. It was at this point, that our convention. our children are! Consequently, it often pupils were introduced to and began Organised by our comes as a surprise to us that so many work with local author Addy Farmer.