National Poetry Day/Poet Visit

National Poetry Day

In order to support literacy and creativity in school we are delighted to inform you that the award-winning poet, Kate Wakeling, will be visiting our school on Thursday 4^th October as part of our National Poetry Day celebrations.

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Kate Wakeling’s delightful collection of children’s poems, ‘Moon Juice’, (7+) was the winner of the 2017 CLiPPA,(The Award for the Best Children’s Poetry Book). Kate will be doing a poetry tour of the school; visiting the children in their classrooms with an engaging presentation of her poetry along with sharing tips on writing poetry.

As part of our celebration of National Poetry Day there is a poetry competition on this year’s theme of ‘Change’ for children in Years 3 – 6. The winners will be chosen by Kate and presented with a copy of her poetry book, ‘Moon Juice’, at an afternoon assembly followed by a book signing.

If you wish to purchase signed copies of ‘Moon Juice’ please pay in advance using ParentPay and complete and return the payment slip to the office (email replies accepted) by Wednesday 3^rd October.  If you wish to purchase the book with cash please send in with your child the exact money and completed payment slip, in a sealed envelope clearly marked with name and class, on Thursday 4^th October.

CASH SHOULD NOT BE BROUGHT IN BEFORE THIS DATE.

We are delighted to have Kate Wakeling visit our school and we hope that you will support this event.

National Poetry Day

National Poetry Day

Thursday 4th October

We are delighted to announce that the award-winning poet, 

Kate Wakeling

will be coming to St Joseph's to help us celebrate 

on

Thursday 4th October

Her first collection of poems for children, Moon Juice, won the 2017 CLiPPA Prize and was nominated for the 2018 Carnegie Medal.

We are so looking forward to her visit.

Author Visit

Author Visit

Piers Torday

On Wednesday 19^th September the award-winning children’s author, Piers Torday, came to visit St Joseph’s.

Piers Torday is a British Children’s writer and winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize for his book ‘The Dark Wild’.

His new book, ‘The Lost Magician’, is his homage to ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ by C.S. Lewis. It is about four evacuee children during the Second World War who discover a magical kingdom.

Years 4, 5, and 6 were treated to an inspirational talk.

He spoke to the children about his happy childhood living in the countryside and how his parents inspired and nurtured his love of reading. His mother had a bookshop named ‘Toad Hall’, after ‘The Wind in the Willows’ by Kenneth Grahame. He used to sit in the bookshop and read, “maybe too much”! He loved to read books but, also cereal boxes and the local newspaper!

He talked about the importance of libraries and that when he was a boy their library was mobile (in a van) because it use to go around to all the villages. He spent hours sitting on the floor of the mobile library reading.

His father inspired his creative storytelling by taking him and his siblings on walks in the local woods and making up stories about it being haunted with all sorts of creatures. He was keen to stress the importance of exercise as well as reading.

The children were enthralled with his interactive presentation and he was keen to get their ideas on their favourite books and on storytelling. He was very funny and engaging making the children roar with laughter by showing them amusing images of him and dinosaurs!!

He also shared with them his personal feelings of growing up and how difficult it can be sometimes. He gave had some helpful tips for being creative such as staring really hard and long out of the nearest window until you imagination is engaged.

The children (and teachers) were so delighted. “Best presentation ever!”

Afterwards many of the children got to meet him personally as he signed their copies of his books. He was truly impressed with the children and the school and was very keen to come back again sometime.

Thank you, Piers.

Thank you too to Children’s Bookshop, Muswell Hill who made this event possible and to all the Parents/Carers who supported us by purchasing books.

Author Visit

Piers Torday 

Wednesday 19th September.

Award winning and best selling children's writer, author of The Last Wild trilogy, Piers Torday, will be coming into school to talk to children in Years 4 - 6 about his writing and his new book 'The Lost Magician'.

There will be an opportunity to purchase signed copies of his books.

Look out for the parental letter with all the details.

Roald Dahl Day Celebrations

Roald Dahl Day

On Thursday 13th September St Joseph's Catholic Primary celebrated Roald Dahl day with a whizzpopper of a day!

Years 1 to 6 were invited to come to school dressed as their favourite character from Roald Dahl's books. The children showed amazing creativity in both their choice of characters from Roald Dahl's books - one child came as the Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket - and in hand-making their costumes.  It made choosing the winners of our best costume competition very difficult indeed.

Congratulations to our gloriumptious winners who won a 'Wonka Golden Ticket' to be exchanged for a book at our next BOOK FAIR (1st - 8th November).

Amber – Akira – James and the Giant Peach (The Centipede)

Orange – Christina – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Violet Beauregarde)

Yellow - Daniel - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ( Augustus Gloop)

Diamond – Flora – Violet Beauregarde

Emerald – Liam –  The BFG (BFG)

Green – Ava – Violet Beauregarde

Sapphire – Fergus – Esio Trot (Esio Trot)

Blue – Gracie – Violet Beauregarde

Tanzanite – Emily – James and the Giant Peach (Glow worm)

Indigo – Joshua - Fantastic Mr Fox (Boggis)

Violet – Honey-Mai – James and the Giant Peach (Spider)

Amethyst – Michael – Esio Trot

Thanks to all staff who joined in to make it a phizz-whhizzing a day!

Roald Dahl Day

We are celebrating Roald Dahl Day on Thursday 13th September.
Children in Years 1 - 6 are invited to come to school dressed as their favourite character from one of his books
or
wear something yellow as it was Roald Dahl's favourite colour.

Remember there is a competition for the best costume and prizes of Golden Ticket Book Vouchers for our November Book Fair.

Challenging Books

Challenging Books for Years 5 and 6 

In our School Library we have a selection of books appropriate for high-level readers. The purpose of which is to provide a greater challenge and to allow the exploration of a greater range of themes. Some of these books may be unsuitable for younger readers due to the subject matter, which is aimed at much older children (Secondary School and beyond).

The following is a list of the books 
available at present.

AUTHOR	TITLE
Blackman, Malorie	Noughts And Crosses series, Thief, Pig-Heart Boy
Boyne, John	Stay Where You Are And Then Leave
Colfer, Eoin	Artemis Fowl – The Graphic Novel series, Warp Series
Collins, Suzanne	The Hunger Games series
D'lacey, Chris	The Last Dragon Chronicles
Durrell, Gerald	My Family and Other Animals
Doyle, Arthur Conan	The Extraordinary Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles
Horowitz, Anthony	Alex Rider series - The Graphic Novels
Landy, Derek	Skulduggery Pleasant series
Lane, Andrew	Young Sherlock Holmes series
Martel, Yann	Life Of Pi
Masson, Richard	Boone
Millwood, Kiran	The Girl of Ink and Stars
Ness, Patrick	Chaos Walking: A Trilogy, A Monster Calls, More Than This
Palacio, R. J.	Wonder
Paolini, Christopher	The Inheritance Cycle (Series)
Pullman, Philip	Northern Lights
Reeve, Philip	Mortal Engines series
Sachar, Louis	There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom, Holes
Schmatz, Pat	Bluefish
Stine, R.L.	Goosebumps Series
Stroud, Jonathan	Lockwood & Co series
Tolkien, J. R. R.	The Lord Of The Rings: Trilogy, The Hobbit
Zusak, Markus	The Book Thief

Parents and Carers are invited to opt in to this service if they wish their child to borrow this type of reading material from the library.

I would appreciate it if you could confirm your agreement that your child may borrow from this list by signing the permission slip on the letter that has been sent home. 

Please return it to the school office.

Thank you,

Mrs Rooney

School Librarian

Roald Dahl Day

Roald Dahl Day – Thursday 13^th September

DRESS-UP DAY

Years 1 - 6

Roald Dahl Day takes place on 13th September every year and marks the anniversary of the birth of the world’s number one storyteller. Roald Dahl wrote 39 books for children and adults, creating many ‘gloriump-tious’ characters such as Charlie Bucket, Matilda Wormwood, the Twits and the BFG.

To celebrate we organise various ‘phizz-whizzing’ activities and invite children in Years 1 – 6 to come to school dressed as their favourite Roald Dahl character.  There will be a COMPETITION for the best costumes and the winners will receive a ‘splendiferous’ book voucher for our November Book Fair.

So remember to don your Willy Wonka top hat or your fantastic bushy Mr Fox tail for a Dahlicious Dress-up Day!

To keep up-to-date with our literary events please log-on to our Library Blog via our School website or directly at www.ilovereadingatstjosephs@blogspot.com.

Kind Regards

Mrs Rooney

School Librarian