Children’s Laureate opens The Wroxham School’s Story Bus

5 July 2010

The Wroxham School in Potters Bar encourages children’s reading with new double-decker StoryBus.

The Wroxham School’s double-decker Story Bus has been officially opened by Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne. The internationally acclaimed author and illustrator of children’s books joined VIPs, parents, teachers and school children to launch the Story Bus, an exciting learning space which was bought from eBay and fully refurbished by the school.

The Wroxham School, a Creative Partnerships School of Creativity, wanted to improve its library and introduce a lively new learning space to encourage children’s reading. The school developed the idea of buying and refurbishing a double-decker bus along with the pupils. Wroxham bought the bus from eBay which has been turned into a Story Bus over the past two terms with help from local artists, pupils, staff and parents. The children have installed a robot bus driver and worked with a graffiti artist to have their art designs bought to life on the bus.

The bus has been lowered and secured in the school playground. The newly carpeted interior has new seating areas as well as designated space for reading and storytelling. Staff and pupils will also be able to hold regular meetings on board.

In addition, pupil Ashley Price from Year 5 delighted visitors to the school by copies of his first published book, ‘The Amazing Adventures of Mr Wellington Boot’. Ashley wrote the series of books as part of a school project and his fellow pupils loved the stories so much that the school has decided to get the adventure series published. Anthony Browne commented on the adventure series saying: "This brilliant book is a wonderful example of the amazing creativity that all children possess. The stories are richly imaginative and Ashley obviously has a huge talent."

Alison Peacock, Headteacher of The Wroxham School, commented: "We are proud to have achieved national recognition for our innovative curriculum and have worked with the whole school community to refurbish the bus as a special story and meeting space on our playground. This unusual idea has attracted a great deal of support from the local community and our families who have been keen to help us. We are looking forward to being able to use this exciting learning space everyday to inspire language, oracy and literacy."

As a Creative Partnerships School of Creativity, The Wroxham School works with the government’s creative learning programme to further develop teaching and learning practices, form innovative partnerships with other schools and help to shape future education policy and practice. The Wroxham School moved from special measures in 2001 to an ‘outstanding’ judgement from Ofsted in 2006 through introducing creative learning and teaching. Creative Partnerships is managed by national charity Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE).

ENDS

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The Children’s Laureate

The role of Children's Laureate is awarded once every two years to an eminent writer or illustrator of children's books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their field. The appointment of a Children's Laureate acknowledges the importance of exceptional children's authors in creating the readers of tomorrow. The Children's Laureateship is administered by the independent reading charity Booktrust.