News
The Usborne Young Writers’ Award 2010
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009 saw the launch of the Usborne Young Writers’ Award. Created to celebrate five years of fiction from Usborne, the award offered children the unique opportunity to write a story with a real author. The competition was an unrivalled success with over 5,000 entries and 15,000 hits on the dedicated website.
Due to phenomenal demand, the Usborne Young Writers’ Award is back for 2010. With NEW AUTHORS, NEW STORY STARTERS and an exciting NEW PRIZE, the award promises to be even bigger. With the support of Young Writer Magazine,
Readingzone.com, The Federation of Children’s Book Groups, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Cheltenham Literary Festival, The Hay Festival, Bath Festival of Children’s Literature and Write Away, among others, it hopes to encourage all the budding young writers in the UK to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards). This year the five winning children will see their stories published as an eBook App, which will be available to download from the Apple iTunes App Store, courtesy of media ideas company Sleepydog.
How does the award work?
Usborne authors Sophie McKenzie, Steve Skidmore & Steve Barlow, Diana Kimpton, Keith Brumpton and AnneMarie Conway have each written one of FIVE very different story starters. There is a story starter to suit every taste, from murder mystery to fairytale adventure. Story starters can be read and downloaded, by visiting:
www.usborne.co.uk/youngwritersaward
There are also writing tips, author videos and information and the winning stories from 2009 online.
Entries can be submitted online or by post. FIVE winners will be chosen, each of whom will win these amazing prizes:
• NEW! The winning stories will be published as an iphone App by media ideas company Sleepydog
• A trip to Usborne House in London to meet the authors • An author visit at their school • £100 worth of Usborne books • A year’s free subscription to
readingzone.com • A year’s free subscription to Young Writer Magazine
Harrow School turns its food into power
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eading independent school, Harrow School, has recycled food waste from off-cuts and plate scrapings over the last year into enough energy to power more than 300,000 lightbulbs. The school appointed the UK’s leading food waste recycler, PDM Group twelve months ago to turn its food waste into energy as part of its drive for environmental excellence.
Harrow School has recycled almost 50 tonnes of food waste over twelve months, made up of the plate scrapings and off-cuts from the preparation of almost 2,500 meals each day and saved more than ten tonnes of CO2.
Julia Tyler, domestic bursar at Harrow School, commented: “Food waste recycling isn’t confined to those with massive amounts of food waste such as retailers and food manufacturers. As we’ve recycled more and more of our waste, organic waste was the last and possibly the biggest challenge. While we constantly look at reducing the amount of waste at the outset, PDM has enabled us to make some significant environmental savings and the system has been easy to implement for our kitchen staff – which is always an important consideration as time is in short supply when providing three meals and snacks for more than 800 pupils and 300 staff every day.”
uwww.pdm-group.co.uk
Teaching pupils about the impact of sight loss S
choolchildren across the UK will be learning about the impact of sight loss this June, by taking part in the second annual ‘Guide Dogs at School’ event organised by the charity Guide Dogs. Schools taking part will have access to free educational resource packs based on the national curriculum containing lesson plans, activity sheets, and multimedia resources. Designed to help pupils learn about the impact sight loss can have, and develop empathy for blind and partially- sighted people, there are tailored packs for early years, primary and secondary pupils. The secondary school packs also include lesson plans for specific subject areas such as ICT and Art, and encourage the development of thinking skills in pupils.
Schools can also request a visit from a guide dog owner, or a guide dog puppy in training, to really bring the lessons to life!
Guide Dogs’ Chief Executive Richard Leaman explains: “We want to encourage young people
www.nec-display-solutions.co.uk
to develop empathy with people who have a visual impairment, and understand how we can all do things to make the lives of visually impaired people easier. As a charity we want to see all blind and partially sighted people living full, mobile, independent lives, and educating young people about the everyday challenges they face is one step towards this.”
Practical challenges for younger pupils will include wearing a blindfold whilst pouring water into a cup, or recognising shapes through touch, whilst problem solving sessions such as how to use assistive technology to navigate the world wide web will test the skills of older pupils. Schools will be encouraged to raise funds during Guide Dogs at School, which can be split between the charity and the school. The official event date is 21 June, but schools can hold their event at any point during the summer term.
uwww.guidedogs.org.uk/guidedogsatschool www.education-today.co.uk 11
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