Rommi Smith was invited to St. Aidan's to work with a group of Year 9 pupils for the day. Recently Rommi has appeared on 'The Verb' and 'The Late Junction' on Radio 3.

Having performed in assembly, Rommi set up a classroom as a crime scene. The pupls were encouraged to examine the clues and try to work out what had happened. Among the clues were a turned over chair, some jewellery, a box of chocolates, a burning candle, spots of blood on a chair, roses and lilies, books and a copy of The Metro.

Here are just a few of the thoughts of the students about the day:

"We looked at a crime scene and discovered that things are what you make them. Rommi made the exercise fun and exciting using a variety of methods." Heather

"Rommi taught us fun and useful ways of writing successful pieces without you knowing it". Ben

"We did some detective work looking at evidence and coming up with a verdict. I learned that this is similar to writing, picking pieces then writing them. We all got the same evidence and then came up with a written piece or evidence in our own unique way" Ashlee

On February 9th, poet Ann Sansom visited school for the day.

Ann has had two books published by Bloodaxe Press, 'Romance' and 'In Praise of Men & Other People'.

She has also written and directed two plays for Doncaster Women's Centre, where she worked for many years as librarian and latterly as a writing tutor.

Ann worked mainly with Year 7 for the day and met with the Sixth Form Writing Workshop students where she discussed writing and got the students to write about a key that opens a particular or imagined door.

Have a look below at a couple of the students' thoughts on the day:

"I thought that it was great having a real poet with us. She taught us interesting ways of writing and told us that you are your own critic. We were allowed to write and think for ourselves. It was a nice change." Lewis

On 7th March author Lucy Adlington visited St. Aidan's to work with the Year 8 pupils. She spoke in assembly about her favourite books and then spoke to all of the Year 8 forms. In Lucy's lively and interesting talk she spoke about keeping a diary, how it was important to read as much as possible and how to get started with writing.Lucy asked for volunteers during her talk and asked pupils to imagine the clues that tell us about what characters are like. She spoke about a range of books that she liked, including 'Ann Frank's Diary'. Lucy encouraged pupils to consider alternative realities, how the world might have gone - 'What if......'
Lucy visited the Star Group on the 2nd of March and came to school to promote Book Week. During Book Week pupils were allowed to read for 15 minutes after lunch, all week. Lucy Adlington is the author of 'The Diary of Pelly D'. Her second book, Cherry Heaven is forthcoming.

The poet Pete Sansom visited St. Aidan's for two days before Easter to work with pupils in Years 7 and 8. Dr Sansom is a published poet and author of the Bloodaxe book 'Writing Poetry'. He has worked at many universities as well as being writing in residence for Marks & Spencer and The Prudential. Pete is editor of the poetry magazine 'The North.' He also runs the poetry press Smith-Doorstep.

During his visits Pete read in assembly and had all of the Year 7 pupils performing actions to his poem about riding his bike. He also read a poem about the great knitters of his life. Working with pupils, Pete got them to write on many different subjects: their house, their street, hair styles and wearing a particular item of clothing or glasses.

"This morning a nice man called Peter Sansom came to visit us. We wrote about something - a body part we had lost. It was very interesting". Natalie

"It was really interesting, His tips were great, This morning we wrote a poem about yourself, but you had lost a body part. It has been an amazing experience, and it has helped me progress with my poetry." Max

On Wednesday 21st June Michelle Jaffe the author of Bad Kitty came to our school. The afternoon was full of activities, talks and authograph signing.

Michelle talked about 'Bad Kitty' and how she went to different colleges to research the book. She also spoke about her life and how she came from Las Vegas. She signed books and had her photograph taken with some of the students.

Buckden Pike Project

With the assistance of scriptwriter Paul Dodgson who has worked extensively on Radio 4, a group of fourteen Year 8 pupils from St. Aidan's Church of England High School, Harrogate, worked for three days on the Buckden Pike Writing Project.
On the first day, Norman Lusher, a former crew member of a Wellington bomber, spoke to the group about his war-time experiences. Norman told the group how he used to wear silk and camel-hair underwear while in the plane as the temperatures were so cold. Norman also gave the group an idea of what it was like to fly over occupied territory.

On the second day, the group walked to the top of Buckden Pike and laid flowers at the Memorial Cross in honour of the dead. Here, despite the cold weather, the group staked out the dimensions of a Wellington bomber and participated in a number of writing exercises led by Paul. The group gained a first-hand idea of the incredible journey made by the sole survivor of the crash, rear gunner Joe Fusniak. On the final day of the project, the group wrote their script of the crash and how Joe was able to make his way down to Cray despite his injuries. Some of the details they included in their narrative came from this website and the letters that Joe very kindly sent to the group.

Two versions of the story were produced which were edited by Paul who also added a number of sound effects. Click on the links below to hear the stories, we hope you enjoy the efforts of the pupils.Why not visit the Buckden Pike Website for more information?

National Poetry Day: Thursday 5th October

For National Poetry Day, the English Department arranged for all the Year 7 pupils to write a poem on the theme of identity, the official theme of the Day. The poems were then attached to balloons and launched in a mass of colour. Hopefully, somewhere a person will find the balloon, enjoy the poem and even contact the school with a comment.
The other inspiring idea for the day was an 'Off the Page' poetry competition where pupils could write, often from the point of view of the object, on any object they wanted - literally!
Some entries were on slate, written on a person, on a mirror, made out of alphabet spaghetti or written with acorns. The best poems carefully considered the object they were written on.

Visit of Philip Reeve

On Monday 9th October, the winner of the Guardian children's book award for "The Darkling Plain" visited St. Aidan's. He worked with two Year 7 classes as well as members of the STAR reading group.

Visit to Ilkley Literature Festival: Malorie Blackman At the Ilkley Literature Festival this year, pupils in Years 8 and 9 enjoyed listening to acclaimed novelist Malorie Blackman, author of 'Noughts and Crosses'. Malorie was an energetic and enthusiastic speaker who read from some of her novels. She told the audience how she had been rejected 82 times by publishers before going on to write over 50 novels. To read some of the comments from pupils who went click here