English teacher
Carrie
Groves
concluded:
This
invaluable two-
hour session was
full of energy
and
creativity
and the students
were all very
enthused about
their creations. We are incredibly grateful for
such a unique opportunity for the students and
hope to see Penny again very soon!
I was one of the chosen budding authors
and, after the session, I was asked to
write an article about my experience,
and I thought 'How am I going to fit two
hours of a fun, creative, exciting talk,
that lets me write my own book with my
own written words, into a couple of small
paragraphs?!'
Poppy Payne
It was very exciting and the whole room
was buzzing, especially because we were
asked to create our own monsters and
feature them in a story of our creation!
Evie Aspland
English
Page 6
Poem by Alice Letten
Based on
The Cellist of Sarajevo
He’s afraid of dying
He may die at any time.
The sound of a nearby shell
A short burst of rifle fire
Another shell lands
He begins to panic.
He takes a deep breath.
His mouth has gone dry.
He sees the grey,
Everywhere the fog of war.
Mangled buildings,
street wreckage
Dead and discarded bodies
People slinking along
like frightened animals
Empty eyes, haunting faces.
He takes a deep breath
Keeps his head low -
He has ever felt so old
or so terrified.
He feels the shot
Before he hears it.
A sharp zip, a rush of air
The bullet grazes his ear.
Then BANG!
The sharp blast of a gun
An eruption of gunfire
A volley of bullets.
Surprised, Confused, frightened
His legs give out
Time falters
Fatigue envelopes him
He drowns in a hopeless ocean
of exhaustion.
He takes a deep breath
And exhales
His feet are moving
He’s back in the street.
Once again time slows down
His blood-shot bots hit
the ground.
The sound slaps and echoes
in his ears.
Is he brave?
A hero?
A villain?
A coward?
Silent worries.
Friendless fears.
There is only what he can do
And what he can’t.
He takes a deep breath.
He’s afraid of dying…
But he’s more afraid of killing.
This year we have had two year groups
participating in the Accelerated Reader
programme, and what a fantastic success
it is so far! Pupils are reading more, and
more widely, and the feedback from
parents, staff and pupils is enormously
positive. I regularly hear that pupils who
'never read at home' are now
regularly engaged in reading,
and at home as well as school.
I have had some lovely emails
from parents regarding this
and they are a joy to receive so
please keep them coming!
So, how are they all doing?
Well – here is the run down for the Spring
term. Year 7 took 1717 quizzes altogether
last term, gaining 5390 points! WOW!
They beat Year 8 who only took 1085
quizzes, gaining 4747 points. The English
class who took the most quizzes was 7y2,
my class (no cheating I promise!) with
360 quizzes and in Year 8 it was 8y1, Mr
Lintell's class, with 207. Our top male
quizzers in Year 7 are Harry Bamforth
– with 41 taken! – Troy Davis and Joe
Williams, with the girls being Ella James,
Izzy Walton and Kenya Dow. Well done!
In Year 8, James Hoff wins the day with
35 quizzes, almost caught by Zack Clark.
Elsie Evans and Kia Tonkiss are the top
quizzing girls for Year 8, and we had 12
pupils who read over one million words
last term alone! WOW! WELL DONE !
The favourite books last term
were interesting. Year 8 liked
Girl Online: The first Novel by
Zoella
by Zoe Sugg, though
Picture Perfect
and
Harry
Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets
were close behind.
Year 7 preferred
Catching
Fire
by Suzanne Collins, with Robert
Muchamore's
The Recruit
and
Class A
a very close second and third. However,
a nice surprise was that
Jane Eyre
was
number 4 for Year 7.
Thank you for all your continued
support and encouragement, and please
remember that you can log on via Home
Connect to see how your child is doing,
and receive an email whenever they take
a quiz. Happy Reading.
Emma Simmons, English teacher
Year 7 students worked with childrens' author Penny Little creating mini-books
Specially selected students from years 7 and 8 were
rewarded with a talk by Virginia Bergin.
The speech was very exciting; we had a wonderful time,
thank you, and I hope that there are more of these enriching
experiences up for grabs!
Evie Aspland
Virginia came to KEVICC to kickstart a book tour and was
very keen to start the tour in Totnes. She said:
I don’t think I
will EVER forget my visit to KEVICC. You were great!
Carrie Groves, in the English Department, says:
It’s such a
privilege for students to have the opportunity for authors to
come in and speak to them, and to answer their questions.
Author of The Rain and The Storm visited ...
