Article for SENine.

Crown Woods College held a Literary Festival in July in celebration of the Power of Reading Project, a scheme launched by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE). Michael Rosen, highly-esteemed children’s author, was Guest of Honour.
CLPE set up the project to encourage children to read and enjoy reading through the use of drama, devised theatre, and their own poetry. Their aim is to get children enthused about reading again. The festival was organised to celebrate the work teachers and pupils have done this year thanks to the project.
Schools who performed included Wybourn Primary, Deansfield Primary, Gordon School, Eltham Church of England School, and Crown Woods itself. Temi Adelakun, a Crown Woods year 10 student, was compere for the evening, confidently introducing Rosen as well as the various schools.
As well as being Children’s Poet Laureate from June 2007 to 2009, Michael Rosen has written 140 books of children’s novels and poetry, and as soon as he came to the stage it was clear why; the children loved him. When asked to give a speech, he said “Actually I think I’d rather do some poems”, before launching in to some of his most popular verse, while simultaneously explaining how he came up with them. The children laughed and rhymed along with him, already proving how effective the project has become.
Rosen described the Power of Reading as an “important and brilliant idea” because “The world’s wisdom” was in books; “in a story you marry ideas with feelings”. He explained the projects importance by saying “They make books fun, it’s all about actually reading the stories, not parts of the story, but the whole thing, it shouldn’t be a controversial idea!”
The schools performed different pieces they had devised that were inspired by the books they had read throughout the year. The Year 2 students of Deansfield School danced to a rousing rendition of “Under the Sea”, which I can confirm stayed in audience members’ heads for the rest of the evening. The dance was inspired by the book “The Snail and the Whale”. Clad in “Literary Festival 2011” t-shirts, the children seemed to enjoy it just as much as the audience, who may have wondered what their teachers must have gone through in getting their pupils to learn a relatively long poem verbatim.
Following them was Gordon School’s year 6 take on the book “Street Child”, in which Victorian cockney accents and faux dirt on the face gave the performance an extra edge. Wybourne wrote their own poetry, inspired by the novel “Skellig”, and the year 7 and 9 students of Crown Woods devised a part of the book “The Garbage King”. Eltham Church of England even brought out a child in full crocodile costume in an effort to portray “Krindle Krax”.
Sheila White, head of Wybourne School, introduced her teachers to the project a year ago, and she proclaims it nothing but a success. “There have been massive results in the children’s reading, and it is even reflected in their writing skills.” As Michael Rosen shook hands and signed his books for the eager children, Sheila said he was “the perfect choice, we were honoured that he came. It has been an entirely successful evening”.