"Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world."  ——By Malala Yousafzi, 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
 

Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world. In a world with the increasing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) having an impact on the digital landscape in ways we have yet to imagine, what is the significance of human inspiration and imagination? In fact, vital literacy skills are essential at every stage of life. As a child, it enables children to succeed at school, as a young adult, it allows access to the careers market, and as a parent, it supports their own child's learning. This intergenerational cycle builds social mobility and a fairer society. Last week, Wellington pupils enjoyed our annual Literacy Week through an array of activities. Let us learn more from Ms Bronwen Duffield, our Head Librarian.

Literacy Week is our annual celebration of all things related to literacy: reading, writing, oracy and more. It is a time for the school community to come together to participate in various activities. This year it is made all the more special because we are able to have our parents join us on campus once again.  

Theme: Storytelling
 

Wellington College Hangzhou adopted the overall theme of Storytelling for this year. Each department then developed activities suited to their children’s stage of learning and embedded cross-curricular links. For example, our younger pupils enjoyed a focus on eco-stories to combine their current learning around Earth Day with related stories and information books. 

Guest speaker interactive sessions

 

Pupils were also able to engage with visiting storytellers and authors – some in person and some online. Our younger pupils enjoyed an in-person visit with Master Plaster, an engaging bilingual storyteller who combines magic tricks with stories.
 

Key Stage 2 enjoyed a session in the Grand Theatre with Rob Parkinson. Rob is able to play a wide range of instruments and led an engaging experience of musical stories, riddles and rhymes. Older pupils also enjoyed a presentation from Bali Rai, an author of over 80 books who specialises in writing shorter books for adolescents. A group of pupils who have studied his books in class also enjoyed a group Q&A session with Bali, where they asked him about his experiences as a writer, the inspiration for his writing and how his books fit into wider social contexts. 
 

Literacy activities
 

Angy Patarroyo, Year 1 teacher
"Year 1 made their own theatre and puppets. They really enjoyed having a go at telling the story using their home-made props. As a teacher, it is great to see the children enjoying oracy tasks, as it can be one of the most intimidating aspects of learning a language. It was also a great opportunity to explore the realm of dialogue and first-person sentences."

Abigail Cutts, Head of English, Wellington Senior School
"The pupils wrote poems about everyday items as if they were looking at the item from an alien’s perspective. They began by writing descriptions, then turned these into poems and finally, they redrafted and began practising reading their poems aloud.  Each class voted for their top three from their class and these pupils went on to perform their poems at the Poetry Slam event in the theatre."
 

Book fair
 

During the week, our whole community were able to visit our book fair to explore thousands of books from classics to newly released titles. There were excited faces all around – pupils, parents and staff. The fair was run by Shanghai Foreign Language Bookstore and gave readers a rare opportunity to browse English books for sale in Hangzhou.  

Parents were excited, too, saying “I brought my children to browse the book fair, they were visibly excited. They liked many books. “
 

Forbes, Year 4
"It’s amazing, there are many more books than at last year’s book fair. My favourite books are Minecraft guided books because I can learn things from Minecraft, the book, and then I can play better. "

Nicholas, Year 4 
"I really enjoyed seeing all the books here. I don’t actually have one favourite book, I like books about science, history and factual books without pictures. "
 

Book character dress-up day
 

The week culminated in one of our favourite traditions: book character dress-up day. According to the online journal, Healthline, edited by a team of healthcare professionals, dress-up encourages creative thinking and communication skills. It also helps pupils practice language development and their social skills. The act of putting on and taking off costumes or outfits also has physical benefits. There are many opportunities to expand literacies by talking about the dress-up scenarios that children fashion. The campus came alive with a colourful array of costumes from traditional stories to modern classics. There were even some fun team costumes.  
 

During Literacy Week, children could be found reading in all corners of the campus, picking up new books and walking around reading as if no one was watching. The purpose of Literacy Week was not just to let pupils participate in these activities, but to let them understand the fun of reading, to develop the habit of reading, to calm down in this era of AI and new media explosion, and to let their thoughts and imagination take off with the quintessence of mankind’s wisdom for thousands of years -- books.

Our pupils and teachers were fountains of creativity throughout the week, working independently and collaboratively to produce, participate and even perform in some amazing activities. The intrinsic learning value and holistic spirit of a Huili education was clearly evident this week. The impact of Literacy Week in school can be continued throughout the whole year to activate the power and magic of storytelling to build pupil’s confidence and skills so that they can thrive.