Category: schools

We are thrilled to be able to offer schools An Illustrated Year 2017. The initiative has been dreamed up by the brilliant team at Storytellers Inc. – if you are ever in or nearby St-Annes-on-Sea, Lancashire, do pay them a visit.

An Illustrated Year 2017 is the perfect way to introduce a new book to your class each month. Here’s how it works:

If you would like to find out more, see a sample of the beautiful calendar or sign up, just contact us!

01277 230 068/info@chickenandfrog.co.uk

Last week we had the pleasure of taking the legend that is Faustin Charles into Larchwood Primary School.

Faustin came across as a quiet, almost shy man. However, once he was in front of an audience of children, Faustin’s natural gift for storytelling came pouring out. He explained to the children that he wasn’t go to read his book, but rather that he was going to tell it and he certainly did.

There were sound effects, exaggerated movements, voice changes and uproars of laughter from the enthralled audience. And once Faustin had told The Selfish Crocodile, he enabled the children to re-enact what they had just watched. It was a real joy to see.

Credit to the extremely well behaved children from Larchwood (some of whom have only been in school for a couple of weeks) and the incomparable skills of Faustin Charles.

We run a Summer School for Larchwood Primary School. The pupils come along for 2 days a week, to keep on top of their learning through the long summer break. As a teacher I recognise that 6 or 7 weeks can be far too long a hiatus for many, causing quite a ‘dip’. As a parent, I recognise that 6 or 7 weeks can be tricky in terms of keeping them busy and not becoming bankrupt!

We are keen that when the pupils come for Summer School they see it as a treat, as something to look forward to, rather than school during their holidays! So, we aim to do things a little differently, with highly interactive sessions, tailor made to suit the needs of a small group. We use Lego (of course) for maths projects, which encourages children to explore ideas on a more practical level.

Last week we ran a media day for the group. Newspapers were cut up and discussed at length – what makes a balanced report, how do newspapers sell, what makes an effective headline…and so on. We also looked at film reviews, before writing our own. It was a very busy day!

To follow up, we were visited by Piers Meyler from the Brentwood Gazette and Essex Chronicle. Piers bravely took on a lot of tricky questions from the group, including ‘Have you ever missed a deadline?’ and ‘Have you ever written something that you shouldn’t have?’

The group had a great afternoon with Piers, finding out how a newspaper works and what goes on behind the scenes. You never know, perhaps there’s a budding journalist or two from Larchwood?

It’s that time of year again, when we launch our creative writing competition. This will be the third year of the competition, which is great. Last year we had over 400 entries, so we’re hoping for even more this year.

The competition is open to all – we have contacted local schools today. You are very welcome to enter the competition independently from your school if you wish, so here are the details for you.

The ‘rules’ are very simple:

• Each entrant needs to write a poem or story based upon the theme of ‘New beginnings’

• Each entry must have the following details written clearly: Full name, year group and contact details

• Each entry must be an original piece of writing

• All entries must be with us by 17:30 on Friday 30^th January 2015 – we can arrange collection if you choose to run the competition as a whole school/year group/class activity

• The age categories are: EYFS, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4+

All winning entries (one per age category) will receive a beautiful book and certificate. They will also have their writing ‘published’ on our blog. Runners Up will also receive a certificate and be ‘published’. Prizes will be awarded at Chicken and Frog Bookshop on Saturday 21^st February, at 14:00.

If you have any questions re the competition, pleased do not hesitate in contacting us. Happy writing!

Hello all. Some of you may already know this, in which case you can skip to the next paragraph. For those that don’t, I’ve been doing a bit of moonlighting on the side.

No, not that kind, you silly people (showing my age…). I mean, I have been working with our wonderful Brentwood Theatre. I am very keen, as are they, to involve schools with the theatre. We’re so lucky to have one right in the heart of town, but it saddens me that many schools only visit for the Christmas show. Having said that, it’s Roald Dahl’s ‘Danny the Champion of the World’ this year, so get your tickets quick before they sell out! The Christmas show is always a treat – the perfect gift in my opinion (apart from books of course).

I digress – no surprises there. Where was I going with this ramble? Yes, that’s it. So, last half term, I ran a day of workshops, based upon ‘The Jabberwocky’ (for Key Stage 2) and ‘Meg and Mog’ (for Key Stage 1). The children took part in an interactive story-telling session, before getting creative in their writing. The Key Stage 2 pupils wrote acrostic poems based upon the Jabberwocky or letters home, as if they were that brave soul hunting the ‘manxome foe’, whilst our younger visitors created spells for Mog, placing ingredients and spooky ideas into cauldrons.

Here are some pupils from Hogarth in action:

And just yesterday, another series of workshops took place, this time for secondary schools. Throughout the day, we were visited by students from Brentwood School, Brentwood County High School and Shenfield High School. They tackled Macbeth, or ‘The Scottish Play’ for those more superstitious amongst you.

I chose Shakespeare because I wanted to eliminate the myth that Shakespeare is hard. And I chose Macbeth, selfishly, because it’s my favourite, but also because there’s so much that you can do with it, even if you start off not being overly familiar with the plot. We worked hard on dramatic emphasis to convey emotion, helping the audience to connect with often ‘tricky’ vocabulary. The students all did a fine job I must say. Do you want to see them in action?

Letters were then written, from the rather blood-thirsty Lady Macbeth to her husband, with strict instructions on how to fulfil the sisters’ prophecy.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to, apart from everything that’s been going on here.

If you’re interested in workshops at the theatre, why not get in touch? 01277 230068/ natasha@brentwood-theatre.org