Book Week 2009

 

The 2009 Book Week took ‘The Tudors’ as its theme, as this year celebrated the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne of England.

 

A re enactment group ‘The Heuristics’ gave Year 5 an insight into Tudor life and the children were allowed to examine and discuss many replica Tudor artefacts. The Heuristics then gave the whole school a ‘taste’ of Tudor medical care with their ‘Tudor Medicine Show’. This event proved to be both informative and amusing.

 

The writer and storyteller, Adam Bushnell entertained the children and staff with a wide variety of stories from the Tudor period. These performances were enhanced by the addition of a group of musicians called ‘Wulfengrim’. The musicians explained how Tudor musical instruments worked and many of the children had the opportunity to try playing some of them. ‘Wulfengrim’ also helped some children learn dances that had been popular during the Tudor period. This experience complimented the work of Mrs. White who had been teaching Tudor songs to some of her classes. Later in the week some classes were fortunate enough to have writing workshops led by Adam Bushnell and he was kind enough to undertake book signings at lunch time.

 

The school also undertook a themed Tudor Day. The children and many of the staff, came dressed as their favourite Tudor. Those chosen ranged from the more obvious Henry VIIIs and Jane Seymores to swine herders and tavern keepers! Everyone was impressed with the effort that many children and parents had gone to, to ensure that costumes were as authentic as possible – some, including the mud!

 

The themed day began with Mr. Sibson, dressed as Henry VIII, presenting a Tudor assembly. This assembly included him checking that all his wives and children were present and that the male members of our community had been practicing their archery on Sundays on the village green! During the remainder of the day many staff shared their knowledge and expertise around Tudor themes. There was an archery demonstration given by Mr. Davies, and Mr. Mingham. Mr. Byfield and Mrs. Wilkinson gave dramatic interpretations of some of Shakespeare’s plays. The catering department was, as usual, very supportive of Book Week and prepared a delicious Tudor banquet, from recipes of the times.

 

Thanks must go to Mrs. Wilkinson who organised a superb poetry competition and ran a very popular Book Fair, Ms. Khan for organising the ‘Design a Shield’ competition and Mr. Byfield for his invaluable reorganisation of the timetable, ensuring that everyone was in the right place at the right time.

 

Finally, thanks must go to Mr. Padley for again capturing all the events in some superb photographs and to all the staff who entered into the spirit of the occasion and who supported Book Week. Without the help of all the staff, both teaching and non teaching,

Book Week would not have been the success that it most certainly was. CER