On Friday 8 March, over 200 schools and 20,000 pupils joined us for a free LIVE virtual event with Waterstones Children’s Laureate, Joseph Coelho.
Hosted by the fabulous Jen Lunn, one of Read for Good’s professional storytellers, Joseph’s event was engaging and inspiring for all ages. Joseph shared his poetry writing inspiration and a host of poetry writing ideas from his ‘Poetry Prompts’ book.
Joseph spoke about how his early life and childhood experiences gave him ideas for the poems, stories, plays and books he would go on to write: “When we read books, we find out not only more about ourselves, but also each other. So, reading is a fantastic gift to be giving.”
He also talked about how the writing process can take a long time, with many revisions and additions to his original ideas, ‘By editing and redrafting your work, you’re bringing your words to life.” So, thank you to teachers for helping us to learn this skill!
Joseph encouraged everyone to get signed up to their local library to benefit from all the free books and events they offer, “One of the best things we can do for libraries is go to them and make use of them.”
Over 1,100 schools, and thousands of students, who had signed up to run Readathon® this academic year (by 7 March 2024) were given access to this fabulous event to inspire reading for fun. The event will be made widely available on our website in July 2024.
Our Joseph Coelho event was watched by schools across the UK from Cornwall to Scotland, Northern Ireland to Kent and included the schools at Alder Hey and Southampton hospitals, as well as other educational settings.
As of Tuesday 2 July 2024, this fabulous event is now freely available for all to watch at anytime! Take a look here.
We are incredibly grateful to BookTrust for their support in making this event happen and for organising the kind donation of Joseph’s books from his publishers (Quarto: Wide Eyed Editions; Walker Books; Otter-Barry Books). These formed prize draw bundles of 6 titles, plus posters, postcards and bookmarks, for 10 lucky schools chosen at random from the 300 schools who had registered for the live event:
St Luke’s CofE Primary School, Bury
Oasis Academy Limeside, Oldham
Netherbrook Primary School, Dudley
Runnymede St Edwards, Liverpool
St Anne’s CofE Primary, Oldham
Meole Brace School, Shrewsbury
Gerrans School, Truro
Cliffe Hill Community Primary School, Halifax
Woodmansterne Primary School, London
Ashford Park Primary School, Ashford
Thank you to all the schools who joined us for the event and for reading and raising this academic year, helping to bring the magic of books and stories to children in hospitals across the UK. If you haven’t already, sign up for your next Readathon now!
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