Here at NHEHS, we didn’t just celebrate World Book Day; we dedicated a whole Book Week to the joy of reading this week!

The week kicked off in style with an inspiring assembly from Joanna Miller. Author of “The Eights” – a novel about the first women to matriculate from Oxford in the 1920s, Joanna shared her “life in books” citing 8 books which had influenced her writing, which ranged from “Little Women” to Roald Dahl’s “Revolting Rhymes” to “A Room with a View!”

Joanna also shared her top tips for any budding writers:

1.       Read!
2.       Write something every day. Clear your mind and focus on writing – as you would a muscle for exercise.
3.       Editing. Think about the reader’s experience. You might have to leave out parts of your writing that you really like.
4.       Commit time to your writing – sometimes it can take a long time to achieve something.
5.       Find your community. Shared experiences of writing and reading are wonderful for realising that your characters and ideas can be shared by others too.
6.       It’s never too late!

A big thank you to Joanna for her excellent creative writing workshops with Year 8 too.

Other highlights of the week :

Stop, Drop, and Read: Daily moments of calm and immersion in lessons before lunchtime every day

Our Atrium Book Project: Our Year 7-9 students shared their creativity with models, poems, games and even some literary-themed cakes

Lit and Lang Society: A special session of ‘Books that changed my life’ over cake in the library

Poetry by Heart: Lunchtime poetry recitals by Years 7-9

Hamlet by Heart – Year 12 and 13 students learned passages of Hamlet by heart and presented beautifully to an audience in the Recital Hall.  Miss Hanbury brought the event to a close with a powerful and emotional recital of her own. 

A Blind Book Swap to help us all discover new stories whereby students brought in old or used books wrapped up to exchange for other ones

And for World Book Day itself pupils and staff were encouraged to come to school dressed as a literary character.

See if you can spot any of your favourite books or characters on our reel!

Thanks to our English Department for a wonderful week!

 

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