Literacy at Curwen

Our pupils participate in a range of activities and events to develop and support their love of reading and all things related to English. These include events such as World Book Day as well as experiences such as storytelling workshops, author visits and writing competitions. These are opportunities for our pupils to experience the spoken and written word in different forms in order to build on prior knowledge and further engage them in literacy.

World Book Day

This year, we encouraged pupils to design and make a sandwich board for their favourite book, which they then wore to school on World Book Day. This was an opportunity for our pupils to get creative, whilst also promoting a love of reading. For the front of their sandwich boards some pupils chose to draw, paint or make a collage representing the front cover of their favourite book or character; on the back some contained reviews or memorable lines from their chosen book.

Patchlarks Storytelling Workshop

This adventurous workshop combined interactive storytelling, imaginative games and role play to get the children fizzing with creative curiosity. Patchlarks say that their workshops ‘aim to grow connections to the natural world and harness the power of play to build up the capacities young people need for a life of joyous prosperity.’ The MASt pupils (Y4, 5&6) that attended this workshop thoroughly enjoyed the experience and collectively helped to create a memorable story of their own.

Trip to the British Library

A group of Year 2 children had the opportunity to attend a storytelling workshop at the British Library. The children used their imagination and worked as a team to create their own story. We were so impressed with the outcome! They also had a chance to visit different parts of the library that are not usually open to the public.

Creating a comic

Children in Year 2 and 3 were invited to take part in a writing competition. They had to create their own comic starring their favourite animal. We were so blown away by the quality of the comics that the children created and they are now displayed in school for everyone to see.

Meet the Author – Nathan Bryon

Some of our pupils had the opportunity to meet the celebrated author Nathan Bryon. His books include: Look Up, Clean Up and his latest title - Speak Up. Our Year 1 and 2 pupils got to hear Nathan reading from the latter, and participated in an interactive drawing session where they had to draw one of the characters from Speak Up. The children really enjoyed this experience with many saying that they’d love to be an author or illustrator in the future.

Young Writers Poetry Competition – Poetry Towers

In the summer term, lots of children from across the school entered the Young Writers Poetry Competition. We are delighted to say that the children below have been chosen to have their poems published in a collection of poems called Poetry Towers.

Abiegail Jimenez

Amara Khan

Anushka Dhir

Benji Nicholls

Bethel Adeniran

Brey Rimando

Claire Liu

Clarissa Jones

Courtney Wynter

Danica Yesan

Diego Bernardino Alves Dos Santos

Heather Macalintal