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| Inter-House story writing competition |
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In our first ever literacy-based Inter-House Competition, more than fifty students from all year groups participated in this creative writing challenge. The pieces produced were of an incredibly high standard. Competition judge, Tom Clempson who is a successful author from Leamington Spa, said he was impressed by the quality of the work that was entered. Literacy Co-ordinator, Mrs Barker, said "There is no doubt that there are some budding writers amongst us". Some of whom are pictured here!"
First place awards went to:
Year 7: Owen Kinnersley (Stringer), Year 8: George King (McLachlan), Year 9: Will Holloway (Stringer), Year 10: Jack Minshull (Ellis), Year 11: Joe O'Connell (McLachlan).
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| World Book Day |
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This year, we celebrated World Book Day with a whole-school book poll to choose our Woodlands Top Ten most popular reads.
Also, right across the school we participated in a 'Drop Everything and Read' session where all students and staff picked up a book and read for twenty minutes during lesson 3.
Our Literacy Co-ordinator, Mrs Barker, said "The students embraced the idea wholeheartedly as they were allowed to read for pleasure and they got to decide which book they read! This is certainly something that we'll be doing again in the near future."
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| Woodlands Academy's first Spelling Bee! |
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In the Spring Term 2012, the top twelve best spellers in all year groups came face to face in a nail-biting inter-House Spelling Bee showdown, the first of its kind at Woodlands. The competition was led by Mrs Barker, our Literacy Co-ordinator as part of the school's new literacy initiative.
Mrs Barker said "The students did their Houses proud as they whizzed fearlessly though a minefield of challenging words. All in all, it was a display of Woodlands' students at their best – and very entertaining to watch for staff and students alike.
Top places went to:
Year 7: Max Jefferson (Cresswell)
Year 8: Joe Capar (Cresswell)
Year 9: Yusuf Broujerdi (Cresswell)
Year 10: Nerojaan Chandran (Sparkes)
Year 11: Daniel Ferrar (Sparkes)
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A day without pens!
There was none of the usual equipment checks at Woodlands Academy on Wednesday 7th December, as it didn't matter whether or not the students had a pen as it was No Pens Day! By taking part in the national No Pens Day, staff at Woodlands Academy successfully created a unique opportunity for students to share their ideas and learn through talk as all lessons focused on speaking and listening rather than writing.
Mrs Barker, Literacy Co-ordinator at Woodlands Academy, said: "We were delighted to take part in No Pens Day in support of 'learning through talk'. Reading and writing are very important skills but people are often not aware of the vital importance of speaking and listening skills. They underpin everything. Not only have the students loved it, teachers and parents have also benefited as well."
Students took part in English lessons using playdoh to mould the item their partner was describing, a wider key skills lesson making origami cubes, a science lesson making The Möbius strip and an English lesson where the students had to cut up words and separate them into word class - verb, adverb or adjective. There were lessons in debating skills, spelling games and collage making. All lessons centered around speaking, listening and following instructions without the teacher or student using a pen! |
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| Inspiration for future authors |
| On Thursday 3rd November 2011, the English Department and Literacy Co-ordinator organised for an author to visit the Year 11 English Literature students. These students have already achieved a grade C or above in English Language, which they passed whilst they were in Year 10. Mrs Underhill said “We believe that it is important to provide this type of experience to some of our Key Stage 4 students and also for some of our Gifted and Talented students.” One of the aims of the visit was to encourage some of our students, who are strong creative writers, that a career as a published author is achievable. The author who visited is Tom Clempson, originally from Leamington Spa, who has written a book from the point-of-view of a 15-year-old boy. The book is called ‘One Seriously Messed Up Week in the Otherwise Mundane and Uneventful Life of Jack Samsonite’ and Tom has just finished writing the sequel. Mrs Underhill added “The students enjoyed the talk and asked some interesting questions.” Tom is pictured here with some Year 11 students (l-r) Callum Rowlson, David Paton and Joe O’Connell, and Year 12 student Tom Beasley who said “Meeting Tom really gave me a great insight into the life of an author and the process of book publication. It was inspiring to hear the advice of someone just starting out in the industry. There’s also immediate appeal to a man who can talk openly about embarrassing bodily pains in front of 30+ giggling schoolboys!” |
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| Year 7's - Startling Life at Woodlands Academy |
In their English Lessons, the Year 7's have been writing about life at their new secondary school. The letters were addressed to their old primary schools and extracts from some of the letters can be seen by clicking the links below :
Group 7x1 (October 2011) |
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Year 7 Reading Club
As part of the English Department’s wider initiative to encourage boys to read for pleasure, Mrs Underhill has set up a Year 7 Gifted and Talented Reading Club this year. The students were pre-selected by their reading ages, which are all aged 14 or above. The Club runs on Wednesday lunchtimes in the LRC. Mrs Underhill chose ‘The Black Book of Secrets’ by F.E. Higgins as the first book that the Club’s members would read. It is a Terry Pratchett-style fantasy, about a ‘Secret Pawnbroker’, his mysterious toad and a wooden leg.
As we have had previous success in Woodlands Academy with reading the ‘Cherub’ series in Reading Clubs, and having contact with the author, Robert Muchamore, Mrs Underhill thought she would try her luck with F.E. Higgins. Mrs Underhill wrote to the author, and she quickly responded with an e-mail. This was followed by a parcel of goodies for the boys including signed keyrings, bookmarks and a taster of the next book in the series ‘The Bone Magician’. She also asked if the members of the club had any questions for her.
The questions submitted by the students included “where do you get your characters/inspiration from?”, “Have you been influenced by the Gothic genre?” and “how long have you been writing?”. The answers to these, and further questions, can be seen by clicking here.
The boys in the Club are looking forward to reading ‘The Bone Magician’ next, as well as the rest of the books in the ‘Sinister City’ series. Some members of the reading group are pictured here with Mrs Underhill. On the back row is Callum McKeown, and on the front row, from left to right are Ben Lawson, Thomas Hughes and Adam-Lee Franklin. |
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