This week our Book Fair has been in town, sharing a selection of the latest reads to support our pupils in accessing the very best literature has to offer. Across the week every pupil has had the opportunity to browse, select and purchase a book to grow their bookshelf. Mrs Whitmore has done a fantastic job of showcasing some of the top reads and supporting pupils in making their selection.

It has been especially nice to see so many parents pop into the school at the end of the day to browse with their child and make the joys of reading a family event.

Additionally, a percentage of all proceeds from the bookfair go back into Etone to use to further support our reading and literacy development of our pupils. A big thank you to Scholastic and all parents who have supported buying a book.

To find out more about our reading provision at Etone please follow this link: https://www.etonecollege.co.uk/reading

A massive well done to our six prize winners from our 'Wanted - Villains' competition; the standard was very high!   All received a £5 for our Scholastic Book Fair.

We have, this week, our first two 'Word Millionaires' in Year 8

Tymon in Griffin House

Denis in Centaur House

This is a stunning achievement, especially so early in the year!  All millionaires will be awarded towards the end of term.

Also, in our House Reading Competition, Dragon have gone back into the lead with a stunning 229 books read.  This is as we go into our weeks of 'long reads' in which we encourage pupils to challenge themselves by reading a longer book, all pupils chose beautiful bookmarks to make sure that they don't lose their place!

We were delighted to welcome so many parents to our 'Supporting your Child to Read' session on Tuesday evening.  Described by parents as, 'very informative', 'an excellent session providing some very useful information', and 'an excellent presentation which covered all of the key reasons why reading is so important and gave parents/carers great information and ideas in which to support our child.' we can't wait to see Etone pupils engaging in even more reading including collaborative reading at home.

We are pleased to announce that the Library at Etone College reopened at the start of this academic year. Pupils have been really excited about being able to once again come in delve into the shelves of their School Library. The books are now all back where they belong and pupils are able to see the wide range available for them to borrow including a huge selection of brand new novels.

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Reading Page

‘Cool’, ‘amazing’, and ‘exciting’ were just a few of the words which Etone pupils used to describe their sessions with Damani Dennisur on National Poetry Day (3^rd October 2024).   Damani’s performance poetry was exciting, dramatic, and engaging for years 7, 8, 9, and 10 showing them how relevant and impactful poetry can be.

Some workshops included poetry writing, feeding creativity and encouraging pupils to express their ideas.  Eric and Autumn, Year 7 were particularly pleased with their poems and enjoyed sharing them with Damani at breaktime in the library.

Dark tonight,

Falls of sun light,

Stars fall into each other

As the darkness of space welcomes skyfall.

Eric, Year 7

We are very much looking forward to welcoming Damani back to Etone in the future.

A stunning 82 pupils engaged in our Summer Reading Challenge this year, with an amazing 66 receiving their bronze reading award!  Well done to everyone involved, reading makes such a huge difference to your education and should be highly valued.

On Friday, 27th September, we drew our prize winners for the 'Summer Reading Challenge Bonus'.  Our winners were Laila-Madison and Lotus from year 7 who both won books.

Etone pupils celebrated Roald Dahl day with some marvellous activities!  Year 7 battled it out with a lunch time quiz, matching up characters to their books.  Pupils from years 7-9 took a challenge card home to complete some fun tasks including telling jokes and making up silly words, just like Roald Dahl liked to do.  We had lots of wonderful contributions to creating dream jars as seen in the book, The BFG.  Finally, we finished off by announcing our two winners, Autumn Moore and Katie Benfell, for their amazing creative talents.

Books for Big Change – National Literacy Trust

The National Literacy Trust recognise that the transition from primary to secondary school is a big change. As a school, we work hard to support this transition and as such would like to share some information about recommended reads that might help to support transition.

Please find below a link to the titles recommended by the National Literacy Trust for transition.  They have included a range of titles and genres so that pupils can hopefully find something that is right for them.  Pupils will have a chance to read these books when they arrive at Etone as we will be ordering copies of our library and our lunchtime book boxes.

https://literacytrust.org.uk/resources/books-for-big-change-transition-to-secondary-school/

Do please also encourage your child to take part in the literacy and reading challenges that are part of their Passport to Etone. We are really looking forward to seeing what they have done over the summer when we return in September. 

Some year 9 classes enjoyed an online author event with LGBTQAI+ writer, Joseph Eliott on Friday, 21^st June.  Joseph's debut novel was Carnegie nominated and a Times Book of the Year as well as having won The Highland Book Prize and his writing promotes acceptance, tolerance, and equality.  They listened attentively as Joseph spoke about his career including performing and script writing for children's television (star and cowriter of CBBC's series, Swashbuckle).  He promoted the values of acceptance, equality, and awareness in his novel, 'The Good Hawk', a teen novel written explicitly to include LBGTQIA+ characters.  Joseph recommended some other novels that pupils may like to read including, Heartstopper, Jamie, The Other Boy, Death in the Spotlight, Eight Pieces of Silva, Wranglestone, and The Black Flamingo before describing key elements of his epic adventure novel.  Agatha, (a 15 year old 'hawk' with down syndrome) and Jaime (a 14 year old 'angler' who is kind and smart) are the only survivors of a tribal attack and must travel across Scotia to rescue their families.  Joseph read an extract of his novel and then gave key tips to aspiring writers:  1) read books that excite you; 2) write without worrying about the quality - just start; and 3) read your own work out loud.

Pupils can order signed copies of 'The Good Hawk' to be delivered to school by 28^th June.