Alpha News 2022, Term 3, Week 8

Meet the author and Year 9 Author visit

Book Week came early for some of the students. Last week Jack Heath visited the school and was available for a Meet and Greet session at lunchtime for whoever was interested in attending. This was followed by a talk with Year 9 students.

The lunchtime session was a highly informal, humorous and entertaining session at the same time informative. He was available to answer questions about the things that have influenced him with his writing. He read examples from his books and even discussed how to get students who are reluctant writers, or you can never find anything to write about, find that perfect story. This discussion came after a question from Mr Barnwell.  Students were effusive in their praise of Jack and even told Mr Barnwell that they thought it was going to be boring but were surprised to find that they thoroughly enjoyed it.

Jack then changed speed and spoke to the Year 9s about the inspirations of his adult novel and the main protagonist, who is a flawed antihero. Jack had challenged himself to create the most reprehensible but brilliant character possible. Interestingly this character is based on many of the traits that Jack feels he is lacking himself.  The rest of the session explored editing because Jack spends most of his time editing – not writing. Many students found this the most interesting and instructional part of the session. 

Ms Angela Mare
Head of Library

Year 3/4 Author Visits

It was a huge pleasure to welcome R A Spratt (Rachel) to Alphington Grammar on Wednesday morning, particularly as Covid had previously kept our other authors & illustrators restricted to Zoom presentations!

R A Spratt is the author of the Nanny Piggins series, the Friday Barnes series, the Peski Kids series and two books of short stories – Shockingly Good Stories and Astonishingly Good Stories. These two books of short stories are based on her podcast – Bedtime Stories with R A Spratt – and were written to cheer children up over the long Covid lockdowns. She currently has a total of 26 published books, with four more on the horizon.

 She caught our attention from the start, with a trombone opening and then ‘read’ a chapter from The Nanny Piggins Guide to Conquering Christmas – without even looking at the words.

Nanny Piggins is such a wonderful character – a pig obsessed with chocolate-cake, witty, cheeky and a great believer in literacy. She sees reading as something very important, because it means you can read RECIPES and be good at making cake! She reads each night to the three children that she nannies – fairytales, adventure novels, stories from her own journal and of course recipe books!

Rachel shared her love of learning and inspiration for her books, which come from a range of real-life situations, reading widely, podcasts and newspapers.

To end the session, we were entertained with a short musical performance with Rachel strumming her ukulele and singing a song about why we should be reading!

The students left the library with a hunger for reading R A Spratt’s books and perhaps, if we’re honest, a slice of chocolate cake too!

Oliver Phommavanh is an author who loves to make people laugh, whether it is through words on a page or performing as a comedian. Connecting children to books through humour is something Oliver does superbly well.

He also enjoys sharing his passion for writing with students through writing workshops, such as the two he facilitated on Thursday with the Year 3 and Year 4 classes. He uses his experience as a primary school teacher to inspire children to write funny stories.

Students were guided through a series of highly engaging brainstorming activities, involving coming up with their favourite food, game, place, job and animal. They then created an idea of what could go wrong for each choice and finally made that trouble double!

‘Two truths and a lie’ and ‘Opposites’ were two other activities to get students thinking about ideas they could use in their writing. These exercises encourage including elements of surprise through unexpected ideas!

Inspiration to become a writer stems back to Oliver’s school days and the teachers who encouraged him with his writing and offering feedback. He also loved reading books written by Paul Jennings, Morris Gleitzman and Andy Griffiths.

Oliver’s advice and number one tip for becoming a good writer is simple – read lots of books. Everyone has passion, so start from the heart and share it in your stories.

Ms Jo Whiffin
Primary Teacher Librarian

Year 5 6 Performance Poet Visit

Years 5 and 6 were most fortunate today to celebrate Book Week with an Author visit from Joel McKerrow.

Joel is an award-winning slam (or performance) poet, who engaged everyone from the very beginning by performing and explaining some of his own poetry pieces. He answered many questions and encouraged everyone to view writing, and poetry writing in particular, in a completely new light.

The sessions began with Joel speaking to the whole year 5 and 6 group where he outlined the importance of creating a Poetry writing toolbox or checklist that focuses on the following;

The intended message of the writer,
How to engage the senses,
Build imagery,
Add humour,
Include actions and or facial expressions
To use repetition, volume and pace
To deliver our own ideas in a powerful and individual way.

The whole group session was followed by Joel conducting a practical Writing Workshop for each individual class where he also introduced a thinking process for writing. The sessions today were a wonderful opportunity for students to learn a variety strategies and ideas to enhance their own writing.

Janet Stewart
Teacher Librarian

Fireside Readings and Dream Karaoke

A favourite lunchtime activity for the primary students were the Fireside Readings. A campfire was created, the room darkened, chilled music played and the atmosphere was warm and inviting. The perfect setting for storytelling. Guest readers were invited to share a book of their choice by the campfire.

It was such a joy to share these reading experiences with a variety of different staff, including Dr Nikou, Mrs Nicholson, Mr Silver, Ms Wang and Ms Grealish, and the students loved their personal book choices. The books selected were books that they enjoyed as children or more recently, or books they knew would resonate with the children. The students were thrilled to have staff and it is something that we plan to have more occasions in the future.

A lunchtime activity for the Secondary students was Dream Karaoke. With the theme of Dreaming with your eyes open (CBCA) and Dreams and Nightmares (EHASS) the students were able to select from songs from different decades all consistent with the dreaming theme.

Although it later changed to party songs, many students got into the spirit of the activity and either bopped along or were brave enough to get up and sing. A good time was had.

Ms Angela Mare
Head of Library