Welcome to our first edition of the St Cuthbert’s Reading Newsletter of this academic year. In this issue, we reflect and update you on how we have promoted and celebrated reading this half term and hear from book-loving pupils, students, and staff. After a very long half term, why not curl up and relax with a spooky read to get you into the Halloween spirit?
On 3rd October St Cuthbert’s celebrated National Poetry Day. To mark the occasion, at lunch time we held an exclusive ticketed poetry recital in the Library. Offering welcome drinks and canapes, we heard pupils, students, and staff recite a range of poems. We were also privileged to have visit us ex-student Steve Harvey who left the school in 1971. He read a selection of poems from his latest published collection ‘Between Dreams’. Below is a list of the students and staff who recited poems in the event.
Mr Willis: Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Darkling Thrush’
Mr Stewart: Louis Macneice’s ‘The Sunlight on the Garden’
Mrs Foley: Emily Dickinson’s ‘A Funeral in my Brain’ and Lewis Caroll’s ‘The Jacberwocky’.
Alexander O’Malley (Year 9): his own poem, ‘Words a Flight’
Isaac Lancaster (Year 11): ‘Lindisfarne’ (poet unknown)
Wencey Mgniah (Year 11): Percey Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’
Felipe Boada Unger (Year 13): Goneril’s speech in Act 1; Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’
Matthew Balding (Year 13) - Regan’s speech in Act 1; Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’.
This month, to mark Black History Month, Year 13 A level Literature students Felipe Boada Unger and George Allan led a workshop to the lower school on reclaimed narratives in their A level text ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison. Looking at how Morrison gives a voice to those who had their voices suppressed during the Slave Trade, Felipe and George focussed specifically on the Margaret Garner story. This led a thoughtprovoking discussion, which generated perceptive comments from all who attended.
With Halloween fast approaching, we think of supernatural figures like ghosts, ghouls, goblins and gremlins. Yet how can we convey a sense of fear without descriptive details of such paranormal entities? We have tasked the pupils of St Cuthbert’s to write a spooky story in only two sentences. Pupils are currently voting for the best one - see below for some contenders!
Some top entries to our scary story competition
Harry Cain
I saw a hand print on my window. Then I remembered I lived on the 13th floor.
Hamza Shamsunnahar
I felt an instant relief when I felt mydoglick myface Then I remembered… I never brought her to the asylum.
Vinnie McGowan
I never thought I would be alone at a funeral. That was until I saw mybody beinglowered into the ground.
An interview withMiss Mclauchlan, Assistant HeadofYear 9
What is your favourite book and why?
‘Things We Never Got Over’ by Lucy Score because it was such a page turner I couldn’t put it down!
When and where do you most like to read?
At an evening in bed as it helps me to reduce my screen time and fall asleep quicker.
Why do you enjoy reading?
It takes my mind off everyday life, and I love to get lost in a story.
What are you currently reading? ‘Remember Me’ by Sophie Kinsella
How can you support your son's reading at home?
Allocate
by
Max Brallier
‘Forty-two days ago I was an ordinary kid, living an uneventful life But now it’s MONSTER ZOMBIE CHAOS Crazy, right? But I know exactly how to make it through the zombie apocalypse’
Meet Jack Sullivan, self-described as a late-blooming, slowdeveloping 13-year-old who has so far survived the zombie apocalypse by hiding out in his treehouse Overnight Jack’s life has become like the plot of a video game and he has come up with his own ULTIMATE FEATS OF APOCALYPTIC SUCCESS:
Defeat Blarg the biggest baddest monster in town Become a zombie-fighting, monster-bashing tornado of cool!
by Rainbow Rowell
Deja and Josiah are seasonal best friends Every autumn, all through high school, they’ve worked together at the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world (not many people know that the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world is in Omaha, Nebraska, but it definitely is) They say goodbye every Halloween, and they’re reunited every September
But this Halloween is different – Josiah and Deja are finally seniors, and this is their last season at the pumpkin patch Their last shift together Their last goodbye
by Amy McCaw, et
a;
What sort of a life is death?
Skulduggery Pleasant by
Derek Landy
Stephanie's uncle Gordon is a writer of horror fiction But when he dies and leaves her his estate, Stephanie learns that while he may have written horror, it certainly wasn't fiction
Pursued by evil forces intent on recovering a mysterious key, Stephanie finds help from an unusual source – the wisecracking skeleton of a dead wizard
When all hell breaks loose, it's lucky for Skulduggery that he's already dead Will evil win the day? Will Stephanie and Skulduggery stop bickering long enough to stop it? One thing's for sure: evil won't know what's hit it
A chilling thrilling collection of 13 haunting tales Perfect for every YA reader!
From supernatural thrillers to contemporary horror, creepy ancient legends to murders gone wrong - this insatiable anthology is impossible to put down, and even more difficult to forget
From some of the most celebrated authors writing in this space, this must-have collection will keep you awake at night and inhabit your darkest dreams
The Midnight Game
Cynthia Murphy
Rules of The Midnight Game:
Do not turn on the lights
Do not go to sleep
Do not leave the building
When a group who have met on a creepy Deddit thread decide to meet in real life, they only have one plan in mind: they are going to summon the Midnight Man
And once you start the Midnight Game, you must finish it - there's no other way out!
Six strangers One night But how many survivors?
Death & Co. by D
J McCune
Adam is a Luman, and it runs in the family Escorting the dead from life into light, Adam must act as guide to those taken before their time As his older brothers fall into their fate however, Adam clings to his life as a normal kid - one who likes girls hates the Head and has a pile of homework to get through by Monday morning When Adam gets a terrible premonition, he realises that he must make a devastating choice, risking his life, his family and his destiny
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
QConor has the same dream every night ever since his mother first fell ill, ever since she started the treatments that don't quite seem to be working But tonight is different Tonight when he wakes there's a visitor at his window It’s ancient, elemental, a force of nature And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor It wants the truth Patrick Ness takes the final idea of the late award-winning writer Siobhan Dowd and weaves an extraordinary and heartbreaking tale of mischief healing and above all the courage it takes to survive
Where Sleeping Girls Lie
By Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Sade Hussein is the new girl at the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy She has no idea what to expect of her mysterious new boarding school - an institution steeped in tradition and secrets But she certainly didn't imagine her roommate, Elizabeth, to go missing on her first night Or for people to think Sade had something to do with it And then a student is found dead
It's clear there's more to Alfred Nobel Academy and its students than Sade could have imagined - and she must race to uncover the truth But secrets lurk around every corner and beneath every surface secrets that rival even her own
Among young people aged 16-24, a quarter have never been regular readers, and 44% of this group are now considered ‘lapsed readers’ Reading for pleasure here can include magazines, graphic novels, audiobooks, blogs, and more not just books!
