Going for Gold. Students with Stuart Berry from the National Coalmining Museum at Doncaster Central Library

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1 Going for Gold Have you ever thought about publishing your own book? The Dearne High School in South Yorkshire did just that! Peter Shaw, English teacher, talks about their ambitious graphic novel project, Fool s Gold. Students with Stuart Berry from the National Coalmining Museum at Doncaster Central Library school children who visit several places of cultural and historic interest in order to exorcise ghosts that are haunting them. Along the way they meet well-known authors. Have a look at some taster pages at the end of this case study. With staff members Eddie Childs, supporting the design team, and Joan Townend on photography, we could not go wrong. We contacted a number of well-known children s writers and got them on board to contribute We wanted to find out if involving students in the writing, production and reviewing of a real published book helps engage them in reading. The answer is, quite simply, yes it does! The production of our own school book, Fool s Gold got everyone talking about reading and writing. You can read about how we produced the book below. Fool s Gold is a fictional, graphic novel full of peril, humour and plot twists. The book centres around a group of modern day Yorkshire Author, Bali Rai reads his own contribution to Fool s Gold words and images to the book, which provided a unique opportunity for experienced and young minds to come together. We wanted to prove it is possible to produce a book with a whole host of different writing styles and maintain one voice. Making the book has really boosted the students self esteem and they no longer consider books as boring or old fashioned. The student/ staff project meetings have also really helped to Protagonists from the novel being interviewed

2 improve relationships between teachers and students. We have sold over 400 copies of the book to members of the local community and it is also being sold in local schools. Four central libraries, Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Northallerton, have bought copies for all their local branches. We feel very proud of what we have achieved. Students, staff and parents are enjoying reading about the book s success as well as reading the book itself. It has received publicity on ITV s Calendar, Barnsley Council website and Dearne FM, which we are extremely happy about. Amy, Year 8 said, This was the first book to more interviews! really put me on the edge of my seat. It made my spine shiver and shake more than ever before. Shannon from Year 8 pointed out, The Dearne High School is the only school that has written a book with actual school pupils in and with four other schools in it and famous authors! The authors who contributed to the book have been so enthusiastic. Robert Swindell said, It is a quality production. I m proud to have played some small part in its creation. GP Taylor told us, It was so good to spend time with your students I was amazed at their depth of understanding. Headteacher, Neil Clark stated: Fool s Gold has and will continue to act as a catalyst to increase Students admiring their novel in Barnsley Central Library students interest and enjoyment of reading and writing alongside the development of vital personal learning and thinking skills. A lot of people are asking if there will be a sequel to Fool's Gold. There are no definite plans yet but let s just say watch this space! Students from Dearne High and local primaries with GP Taylor at St Mary s Church, Whitby Read below how The Dearne High School produced Fool s Gold:

3 We took a whole-school approach and got everyone involved. We had the full support of the Headteacher, staff, governors, organisations linked with the school as well as the students. We investigated cost and budget. The cost of printing will vary, depending on its size and pagination. We used Grosvenor House Publishing that charged 895. To get the ball rolling we set up student/ teacher meetings to discuss the importance of reading, what makes a good writer and how writers achieve wide readership. In the meetings the students talked about what kind of book they wanted to produce and decided on genre, target audience and length. The students devised an outline of chapters and in pairs developed ideas for a chapter with text, pictures and dialogue. We had a core group of students who edited the whole piece at the end to ensure 'voice consistency. We found out who our pupils favourite authors are and examined their writing styles. We then recreated those styles in our work. We also contacted them to see if they would be willing to support the project. Our students did not need any persuading to get involved in producing a comic that they feature in, but we made sure they were 'contracted' to their roles. We also made sure beforehand that we had parental permission to use students photos. Prose sections were largely written in the students' own time and sent to staff, via , for feedback. One team of students were given three days of design training where they learnt how to convert photographs into comic images. Students were given six school days within the last two weeks of the school year to complete the book ready for publication. We gave everyone in the school regular updates on progress and made necessary timetable changes to accommodate book writing, author visits or trips. This was communicated via bulletins, intranet and s. We approached local businesses for sponsorship and managed to get funding for a professional artist to help with the cover and other illustrated sections of the book. We made sure we used students in the lower school for the main characters in case of a sequel. Last but not least, we had a lot of fun! Here are a few pages from Fool s Gold:

4 A mine full of information (chapter four)

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8 A visit to Scarborough library (chapter nine)

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10 Ghosts in St Mary s graveyard (chapter eleven)

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12 Acknowledgements The Dearne High School wishes to thank the following public libraries for supporting this unique partnership project that is encouraging greater numbers of students to read - particularly boys. Thanks goes to: Claire O'Brien, Doncaster Central Library Jill Craven, Barnsley Central Library David Hague, Rotherham Central Library David Tanner, Northallerton Central Library Matthew Milburn, Kingstone School Barnsley David Newman, Ridgewood School Doncaster Lynne Coppendale, Danum College Library Doncaster