Winners of Carnegie Award 2016. Credit: Clapton Girls’ Academy
A girls’ school in east London has been awarded first prize at an annual children’s literature competition.
Students from Clapton Girls’ Academy in Hackney won the Carnegie Competition last week after competing with 11 other local schools.
The eight winners from Year 9 and 10 had been preparing for the event since March in which they were researching and reading titles given to them by the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards.
They gave a presentation of The Rest Of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness in which they used drama to show their interpretation of the book.
Other schools’ performances included music, dance and visual art.
Cheryl Day, the headteacher at Clapton Girls’ Academy commented on the school winning the award: “It is fantastic news that Clapton Girls’ Academy won the Carnegie Award this year.
“As usual both students and staff worked extremely hard but also with a great deal of creativity to prepare for this event. They are deserving winners!” she added.
Congrats Y9s #winning @hackneysuccess #hackney #carnegie award @CILIPCKG best presentation of #TROULUH @Patrick_Ness pic.twitter.com/RGgPUN2vqZ
— ClaptonGirls’Academy (@ClaptonGA) June 17, 2016
Each school that took part in the contest was allocated a book from the Carnegie list to read and do a presentation to be performed in front of the other competitors and the judging panel.
This was followed by a Q&A session with the visiting author.
Writer Kate Saunders was one of the judges in this competition. Saunders said of the event: “This has been a fantastic experience – all of the presentations were brilliant.”
Anntoinette Bramble, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services said: “The Carnegie Competition is a wonderful way of getting young people talking about literature and expressing what the stories mean to them through methods such as drama, that really bring the books to life.”
The competition, which was organised by Hackney Learning Trust and took place in Petchey Academy, saw 100 Hackney students taking part.
