Warbler December 2019

English
Wilnecote Warbler
December 2019
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Accelerated Reader continues to be used by Key Stage 3 to support and encourage reading.
In addition, we have had a kind donation of new books for the library which have proved to be very
popular. If you need some ideas of books to read, please check out www.schoolreadinglist.co.uk. It
has suggested reading lists for all age groups. You can always look up titles on Amazon to read the
reviews and star ratings before choosing. Don’t forget to use the school library and the Swap ‘n’
Drop shelves, too!
Year 11 English intervention will recommence after school on Tuesdays after Christmas, starting on
January 7th. All Year 11 students are very welcome!
ED PARRY
Author Ed Parry came in to speak to the year 8’s about his fantastic book, ‘Golem’, and lead
a workshop in creative writing skills. Ed is experienced in writing poems, songs and books.
The classes learnt about his style of writing. He thinks, he plans, then he puts it into a form of
writing. Following this, he edits then edits again. The final stage is him and the publisher editing it
through one more time before it gets sent out for people to buy.
During the workshop, Ed spent time developing students skills on how to start the creative process
of writing. The students started off with a sentence and built it up to start their stories. Each student
wrote a line, folding the paper and passing it to the next person. Each person came up with different
parts of the story ranging from settings, characters and descriptions through to conclusion. They
were handed back the piece of paper and spent the remainder of the workshop creating stories. Ed
and the teachers were very impressed with the outcome- great stories ranging from horror through
to comedy.
After the workshop, we spoke to some students about their view of the lesson. Mia Sleigh said “I
enjoyed the workshop and enjoyed listening to Ed talking about how he became an author.” “When
Ed came in, he was really nice. He told us what came into his head to help him start writing. He helped
us write some random stories.” Said Brandon Cass.
Ed talked about his favourite books. He likes Harry Potter books because of their structure and the
build-up of suspense and tension; he also likes the Harry Potter books because you don’t know what
may happen next. Ed started off singing and writing songs. After that, he started to write poems
then slowly he moved on to books. Parry became a teacher in his 20’s, but he fell of a chair and really
damaged his spine, so he tried to give up, but he realized that he could still write so he carried on his
career of being an author. He encouraged everyone to be creative, even in difficult times.
The year 8’s would like to thank Ed for coming in and giving up his writing time to come and speak
to us. I got a lot out of the workshop and this has inspired me to start writing myself (starting with
this article.)
Caitlyn-Grace Thompson (Year 8)
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