Words and Work at St Richard's College

Words and Work Week was run in collaboration with Bexhill High school, as well as local primaries, with the aim of encouraging youngsters to enjoy reading.

The event was organised by Stephen Calledine-Jones, funded by the Bexhill Education patnership, and included visits by published authors who discussed their work and process of creativity with pupils.

Head of English department Di Midghall commented: "This is the National Year of Reading, so it has been brilliant to get the pupils totally into the whole idea of reading for fun - and seeing the actual working author means much more than the teacher in the classroom. It gives a different perspective '“ and it is really good fun."

Alan Gibbons, a well known children's author who won the Blue Peter book award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie book award, was at St Richard's for the whole week.

There were also visits from Amanda Swift, who wrote Annabella, Kate O'Hearn who wrote Shadow Of the Dragon Part 1 Kira, and Jill Hucklesby, the 1066 Schools' Book Award winner for 2008 with Deeper Than Blue.

Di said: "To have an author in for a day is great, but for the whole week is amazing '“ and on one day we had three authors."

The week included workshops on topics such as narrative techniques, working on autobiography, and creativity in writing, while Year 10 pupils also visited Gardners Books to find out how books are published.

There was a session for staff from St Richard's and Bexhill High who were interested in learning about the process of writing, while Alan Gibbons also spent time talking to gifted and talented Year 8-10 pupils on developing their skill.