Photos of all the events can be found at the bottom of this page.
The LSA High LitFest fortnight has become a regular event in the school calendar over the past 10 years. From small beginnings, we now routinely invite three or four published authors to meet the children for a mixture of talks and workshops each year. Stories are shared with larger groups and small writing workshops help to build student confidence and broaden experience.
As the festival has grown, we have celebrated books and writing with the likes of horror maestro Darren Shan, sports writer Tom Oldfield and Wereworld author Curtis Jobling. Students have met some of the country's original and best children's and Young Adult writer's such as Mary Hooper, Sufiya Ahmed, Melvin Burgess, Bali Rai and Alan Gibbons. The hugely successful Mancunian poet and performer Mike Gary brought his own particular edge to the 2022 event. Author Julian Sedgwick delivered a gripping talk to Year 8 Geography students about Japan, Japanese culture and more specifically the vast impact of the Fukushima disaster with his book Tsunami Girl.
More recent guests include nationally acclaimed Stephen Kelman - whose Pigeon English is read by all students in Year 9 English, award-winner Sarah Crossan whose beautiful verse novel Moonrise is read in form time by Year 9, award-winners Phil Earle & Anthony McGowan who are read by Years 7 & 8 and hugely talented Blackpool poet, writer and performer Ruth E Cockburn who works with and guides our own students as they prepare for and deliver their Poetry Aloud recitals.
These skilled professionals place their work in context for students while delivering live, dynamic Q&A talks, readings and masterclass writing workshops for groups large and small.
A key part of the school's 'reading for pleasure' strategy hears Tutors across Years 7-10 read carefully chosen books with their students twice a week during form time. The school marries those books with our Festival Guests. Students have time to build prior knowledge of the stories and characters before our authors arrive. They already have an emotional attachment to the characters and can actively and critically engage with the writers' thoughts and ideas. This has resulted in some remarkable and lovely experiences for students and writers alike. Apart from obvious excitement at the events and well-considered questions from students, we had for example a lovely incident with Mr. Spacey's form. They were treated to a surprise visit to their room by the wonderful Anthony McGowan a couple of years back. We knew that they had loved reading his trilogy 'The truth of things' together and the class burst into spontaneous applause as he was introduced to the class : No prompt necessary. This happens because the whole school engages students with books and reading throughout the year, whether they are avid readers or not.
So our Lit Fest is much more than just a collection of one-off events and visits. It's part of a larger strategy that takes year-round to build a culture of reading enjoyment at the heart of the school among all students and staff. It's an active process where the country's leading writers can meet with their readers and a group of informed students who are ready to engage, question, critically challenge or applaud the stories and characters they have grown to love.
LSA Lit Fest
