Bishop Lonsdale School Join Premier League Reading Festival!
As part of a week-long Reading Festival ran in partnership between Premier League Primary Stars and the National Literacy Trust, one of our Super Schools was selected to host a live virtual event with prolific author and poet, Kwame Alexander.
Pupils in Year 6 at Bishop Lonsdale C of E Primary School were chosen as a feature class as part of the national celebration of reading, which was hosted by CBBC presenter Ben Shires.
Kwame Alexander spoke to the pupils about how he became a poet and an author, and about how important reading is for everybody. Pupils got to hear some of his poems and book extracts first hand before asking their questions to him.
Pupils were able to ask about Kwame’s top tips on reading, what inspires him, his favourite books and his own experiences.
The event was live streamed nationally with schools from across the country tuning in, including plenty of other local schools. Alvaston Juniors, who were also on the call, even won a competition to get a character named after them in one of Kwame’s upcoming novels!
The author also spoke about how sport goes hand in hand with poetry snd story telling, from his own experiences of basketball in America, to ‘soccer’ and even cricket, which he sees a lot of near his home in London.
Children from the school said that the author had inspired them and they couldn’t wait to read more of his book.
Lauren Slater, Schools Project Officer at the Trust, said:
“We were delighted to be given the opportunity by the Premier League to host a live even as part of their week-long festival. Our staff nominated the Year 6 class at Bishop Lonsdale for their brilliant attitude to learning and their enjoyment today was obvious for all.
“Kwame and Ben [host] were both fantastic and we were so pleased to give some of the pupils the opportunities to ask their questions first hand.”
To find out more about the Premier League Primary Stars programme, please see below.