Have A Great Summer!

Hi everyone.  I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who turned up at our final session before the summer break last Saturday.  Nine Young Writers were there to write summer poems and from what I could see, making a very fine job of it.

Don't forget that the Summer Project this year is to keep a diary or journal throughout the summer holidays and illustrate it with photos, drawings, tickets, postcards etc.  I have suggested writing in it once a week if possible and the authors of all those handed in on 9th September will receive special certificates and one lucky writer will win a prize.

Above all though I want to wish you all a lovely summer holiday.  Enjoy your writing, but mainly enjoy the break so you can come back in September bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Wonderful Day!!!

What a huge success last Saturday's fifth anniversary celebration turned out to be!  It was lovely to see so many children and grown ups there and I was very pleased the Deputy Mayor and Ciaran Murtagh were able to attend and do short speeches.  Amber James also said a few touching words as she presented the Deputy Mayor with his copies of Word Magic and Word Magic 2.  

I was very pleased to announce the Summer 2017 Project which is to keep a holiday diary or journal.  As I explained at the time, it is up to the Young Writers how they do this.  They can use either a notebook or a scrap book, or make and bind a book themselves.  I would like to see drawings, photos and tickets included and every participant will receive a Specil Award Certificate and the best diary or journal will win a prize.  The diaries/journals need to be completed and handed in on our first session back after the summer break which is on 9th September.

Many many thanks for the birthday cards and gifts for me, too.  It was a very lucky coincidence that the group's anniversary celebration should fall on my birthday.  It was wonderful when everyone sang Happy Birthday to me and I just want you all to know how very much appreciated it was.

I'd especially like to thank the Library staff for their continued support for AYW and also Jenny Crook from the Croydon Dyslexia Association for being the Deputy Mayor's meeter and greeter.  In all the excitement I very nearly forgot to introduce Ciaran who came along and did a talk for the children in November 2015, but he was very forgiving and said some encouraging words to the Young Writers.  He has also said he will be very happy to come back and do another talk some time so I will make sure I arrange that with him for the next school year.

Finally thank you to all the mums and dads for briniging in the snacks and I hope everyone got a piece of our chocolatey birthday cake!

So we have just the one session left this side of the summer holidays and that is this Saturday, 15th July.  Be nice if you can make it but I know some of you will already be in the thick of summer arrangements so don't worry if you can't.  All I would say is Keep An Eye On The Blog as I am bound to do an update or two before the first session back.

Once again thank you thank you thank you for helping to make last Saturday's event - and the Addiscombe Young Writer group itself - such a momentous success.  You are the Cream of the Crop!!

Big Day Coming Up!!!

Hi everyone.  Just a quick reminder about this Saturday's anniversary celebrations.  The session will start as usual at 9.30 and will probably end slightly later than usual, between 10.45 and 11 am.  Don't forget to ensure your children bring drinks and snacks.  There will be some certificates to give out and one award so it would be great if as many of you come along as possible.

I have put together an info sheet about the summer project which I will hand out at the end of Saturday's session.  Don't forget that no specific assignment was set last week but any new work brought in by members will count towards their next certificate.

And finally our final session of this school year will be next Saturday - 15th - and then we will be back on 9th September.

See you Saturday for an exciting morning!

Jilly

The Old Ideas Are Sometimes The Best Ideas ...

Hello everyone.  Brilliant session yesterday. 13 children came along including one newbie and, thankfully, I was there before 9.30, so no black mark for me this weekend!  Because we are only have two further sessions before the summer break, I went back to an old faithful for yesterday's session - acrostic poems.  This is a familiar concept to most of the members because if they haven't done it with us before, it is almost certain they will have done it at school.  The idea of taking the letters from a word and placing them vertically then adding a poetry line to each letter is one of the easiest forms of poetry and before long even the absolute novices were having a great time producing their acrostic poems, so a massive well done to everyone.

I also ran through the itinerary of our 5th anniversary session.  All being well, the Deputy Mayor will be in attendance and the idea is that he say a few encouraging words to the members and acknowledges the support given by the library staff.   He will also be presented with copies of Word Magic and  Word Magic 2  by longest serving member Amber.  If he has time, he may mill about among the children for a few minutes but he is only expected to be there for half an hour or so because of his tight schedule.  Also in attendance will be Jenny Crooks, who is involved with the Croydon Literacy Scheme.  Some members may recall the joint effort of a year or so ago where children from both groups produced their own book The Magical Quest.  Councillor Andrew Rendle will be coming along too.  He is the wonderful person that gave us the grant for the production of Word Magic 2.  Local writer Ciaran Murtagh is also a guest.  He gave a really inspiring talk to the Young Writers in 2014  so it will be wonderful for the newer members to also meet him.

I have advised the children to bring their own snacks and drinks and I will bring a cake.  If they want to wear something special that is fine but it will also be okay for them to just turn up in their comfy clothes, so there are no hard and fast rules here.  I  would also be grateful if the grown ups would stay with us on this day and share the celebration.

And on 15th July we have our final session of this school year.  I will be announcing the summer project then but prior to that, I'll bring along some notes about it on the 8th in case they are unable to make it on the 15th for whatever reason.

Look forward to seeing you all on the 8th then.

Oops! Late Mark for Jilly ...

I gave myself detention after I arrived half an hour late for last Saturday's session!  I am so sorry! First the train was cancelled, then half of Croydon was cordoned off so no buses could get through; it was a complete nightmare!  So you can imagine how touched I was when I walked into the library to see the Young Writers all seated, waiting patiently and the welcoming smiles that lit their faces!  I was originally tempted to cancel the session when I realised I was not going to get there on time.  But I am glad I didn't because, even though we had a much shorter session in the end, the Young Writers - champions that they are - still got stuck in to the latest exercise in what little time they had so huge, huge thanks to you all for your loyalty and your faith in me; you have made me feel very humbled.

So what we were doing was looking at a new way to create a story.  I presented the Young Writers with three beakers, one for TITLES, one for PEOPLE and one for PLACES.  They were invited to pick a paper from each and then use their three picks to plan a story.  What I had hoped was that they could each write their story and then swap their pieces of paper with someone else and try again. Unfortunately due to the time constraints we did not get to that stage but the assignment set was to take their paper pieces and their ideas home and create their stories there.

The point of this exercise is to challenge their imaginations and challenge is the right word because several Young Writers seemed a bit baffled by their picks.  How do you tie together an unlikely mix such as The Haunted School (title), the shop in the park (place) and Young Ali (character)?  But after giving a couple of brief examples to show that a new story can come out of anything I could literally see the penny drop with many of them, and once it had, off they went with their pens, heads clearly brimming with ideas.

In the end it turned out to be an excellent, if somewhat reduced, session and twelve children turned up so it was more of a success than a disaster!

Next session is on 24th June so see you there and, once again, thank you to everyone.

See You This Saturday

Here I am back from my wonderful holiday in Devon!  The weather was amazing and we really enjoyed the sights and sounds of this beautiful part of the country.

I hope the Young Writers have been busy with their letter writing and look forward to reading their completed assignments.  Don't forget our next session is this Saturday, 10th June, same time, same place.  I look forward to seeing you there.

All Hail The Forgotten Art Of Letter Writing ...

Great great session on Saturday! Ten Young Writers came along including one new young lady who started off quite scared and shy and ended the session by starting a story.  I have to tell you that is exactly why I run this group.  It isn't so much what I get out of it as what they get out of it.  If that young lady felt confident enough, within half an hour, to start a story then I know I am doing something right somewhere along the way - and why I am so very very proud of these children.

We were looking at letter writing this weekend.  I set the scenario for them - a new boy or girl at school feeling lonely and a bit lost is cheered up by a friendly letter slipped secretly into their school bag.  I asked the children how they would cheer the new kid up, what would cheer them up and what they would like someone to say to them if they felt a bit sad.  They gave this their best shot and most had finished the letter in time to switch places and write a reply so very well done to all of them. The assignment set was to write a story in at least four letters, introducing at least two characters who communicate to resolve a problem.  Who the characters are, what situation they resolve and how is entirely up to them.  We haven't tackled letters for a while and, with the Post Card season coming up as the summer holidays roll tantalisingly close, it seemed an appropriate topic.

Long serving member Amber was celebrating her 10th birthday on Saturday.  Amber joined the group in January 2014 and it has been a real pleasure watching her grow and develop her writing style in that three years  so a very happy birthday to Amber.

The next session will be on Saturday 10th June as I am off to Devon for a few days so look forward to seeing you all then.