News from ACA Patrons:

Floella Benjamin to give BookTrust annual lecture – ACA Patron Baroness Floella Benjamin OBE will deliver this year’s BookTrust Annual Lecture. Her lecture will take place on 11th October at Royal Institute of British Architects in London.

Jacqueline Wilson Creative Writing Prize 2018 – ‘I’d wanted to find a special friend ever since I came here. However, I never thought I’d find such an amazing one! …’ If you know someone aged 7-12 with a story to tell on the theme of unlikely friendships, encourage them to enter by 14 September.

Michael Rosen on making children laugh – ‘Making children laugh isn’t terribly difficult. You just have to understand where the laughter is coming from, and why it’s necessary in a child’s development. I’m no scientist, neurologist or psychologist, but I know it helps them find their way in life.’

Opportunities:

Call for scripts – Beginning July 1, 2018, New Plays for Young Audiences seeks new unpublished and unproduced full-length play scripts for young audiences for their 22nd season, June 2019. The final date that submissions for 2019 will be accepted is October 31, 2018.

Free summer art workshops for children in Ulster University – Thanks to sponsorship from the Garfield Weston Trust in London, the university and graduates have teamed up to host a series of free art workshops for children, beginning on Thursday, August 9.

Aberdeen Maritime Museum offers music workshop – the workshop will be lead by a professional musician and is aimed at children aged 3-8.

More News:

What makes a school Outstanding? We asked pupils – TES puts Listening to Children into practice, asking schoolchildren what they think makes their schools outstanding.

School wins OPAL Gold Award for teaching children to play – Rosa Street Primary School has created a covered sandpit, mud kitchen, den building and dressing up area in its playground. Headteacher Helen Ashton said: “We wanted to teach children how to play, purposeful play is good for language, listening, speaking and cooperation skills.”

Hundreds of primary school children perform at Riversfest – The pupils, from schools in the Rivers CE Academy Trust, performed songs, gymnastic and dance displays. Kate Brunt, Trust Founder and CEO said:  “All of our Academy Schools have talented music specialists and were also supported by Paula Evans, our specialist singing and musical theatre teacher in the production of this spectacular performance.”