Last term, the English Department and Library Team joined forces to host an exciting two-day Mini Literary Festival — and what a brilliant celebration of books, creativity, and storytelling it was!

To kick things off, we were thrilled to welcome award-winning children’s author Ali Sparkes to Blue Coat. With over 40 books to her name, Ali captivated our Year 7 students with tales of her writing journey, while Year 8s enjoyed exploring the thought-processes behind the series Night Speakers series. They were joined by external Year 8 students due to start at Blue Coat in Year 9, who teamed up with their Blue Coat buddies for a fun and inspiring creative writing workshop, where they dreamed up fresh storylines and characters. As always, our students impressed with their energy, enthusiasm and imagination — it was a day that left everyone buzzing about books!

The mini-festival continued for a second day and this time it was Year 9’s turn to get creative during a Culture, Chaos, Comics Day — a dynamic, rotational event led by the English Department. Students had the chance to meet award-winning author Julian Sedgwick, whose passion for Japan and its culture shone through as he shared the inspirations behind his writing. They put their own creative writing skills to the test in a fantastic Build Your Team Adventure challenge — a brilliant interactive competition designed by the English Department’s very own Miss McKean.

Cross-curricular creativity was also in full swing with an exclusive Manga Workshop with professional illustrator Chie Kutsuwada, delivered in collaboration with the Art Department.

It was two days full of storytelling, imagination and creativity — a fantastic festival from our English Department, Library team and Art Department, bringing literature to life.

Mrs Greenslade, Second in English

Mrs Evetts, Head Librarian