CAT Talks - Culture and Technology in Abingdon

The first of our OLA CAT talks is tomorrow, Wednesday 17th April at 7.30pm in the Clare Moore Auditorium at Our Lady's Abingdon Senior School.

The speakers are:
• Mr Ian Yorston (Director of Digital Strategy, Radley College) - "Please be nice to your robot"
• Mrs Jill Carver (Proprietor of Added Ingredients and promoter of Choose Abingdon - "Food glorious food - my views on supermarkets"
• Professor Stephen Bennington (Founder of Cella Energy) - "Hydrogen, the fuel of the future"
• Mrs Helen Holden (Head of Art, OLA) - "Talking pictures"

The event will start at 7.30 pm with two talks and then an interval with refreshments. The other two talks will follow. The inspiration for the format of the CAT Talks is based on the well regarded TED Talks.

This event is open to all adults in the Abingdon area and will be the start of regular CAT forums. RSVP to Miss Gunn at the school.

Any Questions at OLA on 5 April

BBC Radio 4's Any Questions was recorded at OLA yesterday. One of my questions - The Times Educational Supplement today [5 April] lists the top 100 favourite books by 500 teachers. What are the panel's favourite reads? - was selected! But the programme ran out of time before I could ask it. I had prepared my own choices in case I was asked the question and here they are:
Books I re-read every few years: E.M. Forster's A Room with a View, Jospeh Heller's Catch 22, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
Children's books: J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Louis Sachar's Holes, Michael Morpurgo's Private Peaceful and a new best book, one recently shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, Sally Gardner's Maggot Moon.
Reading group recommendations: Henry James' Washington Square, Ian McEwan's Atonement and the recent children's book by R.J.Palacio, Wonder.
At the OLA Reading Festival in September Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games was by far the most popular title.

2013 Carnegie Medal shortlist

The shortlist for the prestigious children’s book award, the Carnegie Medal, has been announced and we have a keen reading group of over 20 pupils from years 7 and 8 who will be shadowing the award.
The eight titles on the shortlist are:
The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan, Bloomsbury
A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle, Marion Lloyd Books
Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, Hot Key Books
In Darkness by Nick Lake, Bloomsbury
Wonder by R.J. Palacio, Bodley Head
Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick, Indigo
A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton, David Fickling Books
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, Electric Monkey

Founded in 1936, the Carnegie Medal is awarded annually by CILIP (Chartered Institute for Librarians and Information Professionals) which encourages schools to get children and teenagers reading the books shortlisted with its Carnegie Shadowing scheme.
The OLA 'shadowers' are reading and reviewing the books as well as meeting pupils from the five other local secondary schools to discuss the books.
Read our reviews here

Recent Book Awards

Waterstones Children's Book Prize
Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher has won the Waterstones children's book prize.

BLUE PETER BOOK AWARDS 2013
Hundreds of children from schools across the country chose Tom Gates: Genius Ideas, Mostly by Liz Pichon as the winner of the Blue Peter Book Award for Best Story.
Horrible Science: House of Horrors by Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles is the winner of the Best Book with Facts.

RED HOUSE CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARD 2013.
The Federation of Children's Book Groups have announced the winners of the Red House Children's Book Award 2013, where the votes are cast by children. Over 800 books were submitted over the course of the year for the award by all major UK publishers with more than 53,000 votes cast for the top ten books in this year’s shortlist.
The Medusa Project: Hit Squad by Sophie McKenzie won the category for Older Readers.
Gangsta Granny by David Walliams won the Younger Readers category.
Spooky Spooky House won the Younger Children category, and beat the winners of the other two categories to the overall prize, which was presented by Patrick Ness, winner of last year's award with A Monster Calls.

Decorated Doors for World Book Day

The Decorate-a-Door-as-a-Book competition produced some stunning entries - it turned out to be a difficult task for the three judges. 'Highly Commended' went to 7B’s The BFG and 8B’s two entries, Elmer and The Hobbit . 8A’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar and 9D’s Ballet Shoes were awarded 'Very Highly Commended'. The Gruffalo’s Child by 9B came second, and 9C’s Winnie the Pooh 3rd, but the winners were Form 8C with a hugely creative and inventive interpretation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.








Staff also entered some doors.




Rosettes for winners were also made in school:

World Book Day - Thursday 7 March

World Book Day is Thursday 7 March and OLA will be celebrating!

We are delighted to host the book launch of Kate Rundell's second children's novel Rooftoppers. Years 6 & 7 and children from local junior schools will be meeting the author and hearing about the book.

Planning and preparations are also in hand for the Decorate-a-door-as-a-Book Competition which is for forms and clubs. Over the years this activity has produced some wonderfully inventive ideas, so watch this space for photos.

Guinness World Record attempt at OLA Library

On Wednesday 6 February thousands of students in over 100 schools across the UK will be attempting to set a new Guinness World Record in collaboration with author Matt Haig. Students will take part in “Parallel Universes”, a story-writing workshop that will attempt to break the world record for the most people writing a story. The current record is 953 participants at 5 venues. The beginning of the story has been written by the award-winning children’s author, and on the day each venue will then continue this story, with each participant adding a maximum of two sentences.
At OLA the Mayor of Abingdon will be in the Library to witness the launch of OLA's version of "My Family and Other Aliens". Pupils from OLA Junior School will begin the session, which will continue all afternoon, in the presence of independent witnesses.
This is one of the many celebrations taking place this week in school, college, university, workplace and public libraries across the UK to celebrate National Libraries Day on 9 February.

Report: Eighty pupils from OLA's Years 4 to 6th Form contributed to the story writing record attempt. We won’t know until late May if the record of 953 has been beaten, as each of the venues has to send off their story, photographic and video evidence plus witness statements. Over 120 schools took part with at least 25 participants at each school.