The King James Primary Book Challenge

June 2019

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Pupils from Crook Primary and St Andrews were the first to take part in the Primary Book Challenge. They are pictured here with visiting primary teacher and King James Librarian, Mr Wheatley.

In the coming weeks, pupils from four local primary schools will be participating in a literacy-based project called the "King James Book Awards'. The initiative is designed to develop reading skills through a range of fun challenges related to five award-winning books.

Ten students from each school have been selected to form a team, and each team will be given two copies of five different books to read in their own school over a four-week period. Pupils will discuss their books with members of their team before choosing their favourite, and this will become the focus of the final challenge.

Featured books include 'Arrowhead' by Ruth Eastham, 'The Talisman Thief' by Gabrielle Kent, 'The Lost Magician' by Piers Torday, 'Poppy Pym and the Smuggler's Secret' by Laura Wood, and 'The House With Chicken Legs' by Sophie Anderson, all of which are award-winning best sellers for children.

During the final week in July, teams will return to King James for a special event. Pupils will produce a dramatic performance focussing on a scene from the book and a book review, which they will present to other primary schools. Each team will complete a number of activities to earn points, and the team who holds the most points will earn a special prize.

This week, two primary schools visited King James to begin the book award challenges. Teams from Crook Primary School and St Andrews Primary School faced activities such as "Freeze Frame', "Decoding' and "Anagram', as well as drawing activities in which they took inspiration from the books in the competition to produce their own creative work. We look forward to welcoming pupils from Cockton Hill and Victoria Lane Primary Schools at a later date.

The King James Book Awards is part of our popular "Primary Outreach' initiative at King James. This extensive programme gives primary school pupils the opportunity to experience a secondary school environment and allows them to access the enhanced facilities we have to offer.

Forthcoming primary outreach activities include a creative arts challenge, a history challenge in which youngsters will have an opportunity to discover more about their local area, an exciting STEM engineering project, and a business challenge in which pupils will be tasked with creating their own profitable company.

Written by Year 12 student, Kyle B.