Winchester Guildhall Trip - November 2016

Some of our Year 9 students participated in the Hampshire Book Award last year, where they read and evaluated 6 shortlisted books before voting for a winner.   These students visited the Winchester Guildhall in November to see Jo Cotterill, the winning author, receive her award for her powerful and thought provoking book, ‘Looking At The Stars’. 

“The inspiring words of Jo Cotterill will stay in my head for some time, particularly as she recalled the other endings she considered for the book when she wrote it several years ago.  It was great to see and meet one of my current favourite authors; thank you, Calthorpe!”  Lucas E (K05)

“The Hampshire book Award was a competition where nominated books were read by students before a final winner was chosen.  I enjoyed reading the shortlist as it opened up different book genres that I haven’t read before.  In November, we went to see Jo Cotterill, author of the winning book, Looking At The Stars.  It was really interesting to hear about the route she took to get into her writing career and how to get a book published, which could be useful in the future!  After her presentation, we had a chance to buy a book and get it signed, as well as have a photograph taken of us with her.  Overall it was a great experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it.” Alice G (D03)

“I enjoyed the Hampshire Book award process as it meant I got to read 6 books which were out of my comfort zone.  After 3 months of reading and discussing the books, we went to a regional voting day at Frogmore school. This involved us sharing our opinions of the books with pupils from other schools and then voting for our favourite.  We also did a quiz which our table won, winning books for the school library.  After a few months, we went to a talk by Jo Cotterill, author of the winning book, Looking at the Stars.  This talk was very funny and told us about Jo’s life and the writing process.  To conclude, the Hampshire book Award process was great fun and I would definitely take the opportunity if I could do anything like it again.”  Sam R (D11)