Heritage High School Spring Newsletter 2018 | Page 10

Carnegie 2016
Mrs F Newton
The Group
Heritage High School were part of the Carnegie Shadowing scheme
again this year. This is the second year that Heritage have had a
shadowing group and the group has almost doubled in size from last
year! Students from all year groups met one a week to discuss the books
on the Carnegie shortlist and decide which book deserved to be the
winner.
The students had their own Carnegie Shadowing web page on which
they could upload book reviews, blog posts about their meetings
and poll questions for students from around the country to vote on.
Questions that were chosen by our group included: which book on the shortlist would make the best film, which
shortlisted author’s writing style do you like best, and which book did you chose to read
first? The book reviews were collected into a Shadowing magazine to encourage other
students to read the shortlisted books.
To be eligible for nomination books must have been published within the last calendar
year and show good depth of plot and characterisation. The books can be about any subject
and in any style. Each of the books on the shortlist this year were completely different to
the others. The authors all had their own unique writing style and the stories all tackled
different themes. Because the books were so different it was difficult to decide which book
would win but a clear favourite amongst the majority of the group was a book called ‘One’ by
Sarah Crossan. The book was written in free verse, so it looked like a poem on the page but
it did not rhyme. During every meeting the students would vote for their current favourite
book. The results of these votes were displayed on the group’s reading barometer. ‘One’ was
at the top of the group’s barometer every week since the group started because the students
really enjoyed the story, they found the characters believable and thought the ending was
surprising and emotional.
The Competitions
Being part of the Carnegie group allowed students to try new authors and genres of
books and meet new people who also enjoy reading. It also allowed students to enter
competitions that were linked to the shortlisted books and were open exclusively to
Carnegie Shadowers.
One of the competitions that was run this year was a writing competition. Students had
to write a story based on the theme on ‘a journey’ in 300 words or less. The strict word
count made it extremely challenging but Tanitia Moore from Year 10 wrote an incredibly
powerful piece about someone searching for someone they had lost. Please see the next
page to read this.
Another competition that ran this year was called ‘no editing required’. Students were
asked to make a video about one of the shortlisted books that was no more than 60 seconds
long and was made without the use of editing software. Students had to be imaginative
and think creatively to produce a video that had impact on the audience. Shannon Palmer,
Lydia Allen and Abigail Hattersley, from Year 8, worked together to make a video
about ‘One’ by Sarah Crossan. They used props and signs to give their video
impact without using special effects and chose a colour scheme throughout the
video, of turquoise and pink, that reflected the colours on the cover of the book.
Tanitia Moore and Faye Marshall, from Year 10, made a video about a book by
Patrick Ness called ‘The Rest Of Us Just Live Here’. Their video was made in the
style of ‘draw my life’ in which the narrator of the video talks about themselves
and summarises key points about their life with simple drawings on a whiteboard.
It was made from the point of view of the story’s central character, Mikey. Tanitia
and Faye made their video using an app that allowed them to pause live filming so
they could make their video without the need for editing.