Catherine Johnson led a fabulous assembly to open Book Week 2015 at the senior school. This stellar author has scripted for TV and film (Holby City etc…) as well as writing some brilliant YA novels. She shared Philip Pullman’s wise words with the whole school – “a writer is someone who uses lies to write the truth”- and then years 7 and 8 enjoyed an in-depth talk about her many books.

HOUSE BOOK QUIZ

If Gurney started the quiz hoping for a hat-trick year by the end they were just glad to see some points on the board…. This was unquestionably LYTTELTON’s year – they were on fire! The other teams resorted to blaming buzzer malfunctions…. Congratulations to the awesome Lyttelton team and to everyone who took part, making this a fun and furiously contested competition.

TUESDAY

A huge HUGE thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of Tuesday’s book auction. We raised £75 in under 30 minutes so a big thank you to everyone who donated books and to everyone who came to bid for them. Mr Edmunds was a brilliant auctioneer and this was a very smiley, loud occasion. All the money raised will go to support the vital work of Afghan Connection, supporting education in this war-torn environment. Check out their website for more information! We did a lot of good AND got some brilliant book bargains at the same time. Well done, BHHS!

WEDNESDAY

The wonderful Nikki Sheehan performed some Book Week magic in assembly on Wednesday morning and there’s no doubt that her visit was hugely inspiring. She spoke with humour and passion about her writing career. Everyone shared their experiences of imaginary friends…. Charlie Blood? That’s not a book – that’s a whole series waiting to happen. Nikki told all the girls that they CAN be writers – they just need to pick up a pen and do it.

Here are her top writing tips:

1. read read read read read

2. edit and polish – don’t worry if it’s not perfect first time – it’s not meant to be!

3. join a creative writing group – online or in real life. Try wattpad.

4. write what you LOVE and, hopefully, other people will love it too.

5. no distractions! Give yourself space and quiet and time – turn off those phones; give up facebook/snapchat etc for a while.

6. enter competitions (ideas for these on the English Firefly page…) or try writing a review of a book for a newspaper like the Guardian

THURSDAY: THEATRESAURUS ‘MACBETH’ WORKSHOPS

Each year 9 class had an hour and a half workshop today led by Theatresaurus. The focus was tension and conflict in Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’. Students very much enjoyed the ‘on your feet’, creative approach and really felt the play brought to life. The witches “could be anyone, could be anywhere” and the power dynamic between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth was even scarier!

 

 

FRIDAY: DRESSING UP BOOK WEEK FINALE

The whole school was alive with literature on Friday – books literally walked (and went to lessons…). BHHS students are the most fun, the most creative, and the most sparkly bunch of people. There were fantastic collisions of characters in the corridors: ‘Of Mice and Men’ teams colliding with ‘Alice in Wonderland’, Snow White and the seven dwarves bumping into ‘The Cat in the Hat’. Smiles and conversation all round….and all this in aid of such a good cause: our twinned school in Afghanistan. We are still collecting and counting money and look forward to letting you know the full amount soon.