“The good quality of leadership throughout the school is driving the development of teaching and learning…”
Ofsted Inspection Nov 2007
Booktrust Teenage Prize Award Ceremony, Wednesday 31st October 2007
by Mark Chesters Year 10
Gemma Bradshaw and I were lucky enough to attend Booktrust teenage book awards ceremony in London. Mrs. Currington, our school librarian had applied to be put in a draw, just on the off chance that we would win some tickets. The school received three places at the awards, and Gemma and I were picked out of the hat from our shadowing group at Tanbridge House School, to go with Mrs. Currington.
We arrived at the Pearson Building in the Strand just before twelve. We entered the building and were given our passes and name badges. We found a lift that would take us to the tenth floor, and walked over to the room where the award ceremony was happening. As we went in, we were offered a drink and introduced to the lady looking after us. After an hour of socialising and trying as many of the nibbles as we could, the prize giving began.
It began with chair of Booktrust, Alison Morrison, giving a speech, and then moved onto Angela Wilkinson – head judge. She gave a short synopsis of each book, and then announced the winner. And the winner was… Horsham author Marcus Sedgwick with the superb My Swordhand is Singing. It was a worthy winner, a gripping and exciting story and a definite favourite in our shadowing group. Last year’s winner Anthony McGowan presented a very happy Marcus with his trophy and a cheque for £2,500.
To add to the already exciting events, Gemma and I were presented with a set of the short listed books. This gave us a chance to meet the authors and to have our books signed. We managed to talk to Marcus amongst the chaos of photographs and others talking to him. He was a genuinely nice guy and I think he deserved to win. We also met all the other short listed authors including Kate Cann, Meg Rosoff and Phillip Reeve.
Overall, it was a very exciting and interesting day which Mrs. Currington, Gemma and I immensely enjoyed.