We are delighted to have been chosen by the Brighton Festival to participate in the Adopt an Author scheme to take place this spring. The project will culminate in May 2012 at the Dome as part of the Brighton Festival where the learners will get to meet with the author they have been working with on the project. This is a very exciting opportunity for our learners to be working in collaboration with the local community as well as the author, Andy Croft, who comes from Middlesbrough.

This is the first time a specialist college has been chosen as a participating member of the project and we are one of just four chosen for this year’s project.

The book we have chosen to work on is called ‘Come on Danny’ by Andy Croft. It is a story about a teenager called Danny whose father is in prison. Home is hell. His teachers hate him. Is football the only way forward?

The project will last for 8 weeks, during which time the  learners will make contact with Andy Croft, establish a weekly email relationship with him, write letters or maintain contact in other ways. They can use this time to ask him questions about how the book came to be, what it’s like to write books (Andy has written 32 books as well as poetry) and tell him about what they are doing in relation to his book. The learners will be involved in reading the book, discussing their thoughts and ideas and then deciding how they would like to work with the book. This could include cross-curricular involvement as well as creative ideas – drama, artwork, cartoons, computer generated presentations, poetry, a visit to Lewes Prison, stories/letters to ‘Dad’ in prison etc. We have total freedom to explore ideas.

This is an opportunity for our learners to explore different ways of communicating within the college, between themselves, within the community, with the chosen book and with the author.

We will be visited twice by Hannah Osmond from The Dome Brighton Festival Team to support our plan, see how the learners are getting on and prepare them for the meeting in May at the Dome. Andy has a lot of experience working with reluctant readers and special needs young people. One of his quotes is:

"Books themselves are not enough to inspire reluctant readers to read. They won't become readers until they have become writers... they won't write if they think writing belongs to someone else. They won't respect, or be curious about, or be passionate about, or be critical of, other people's writing until they begin to be some of those things about their own writing. Books won't belong in their lives until their lives belong in books”. (Andy Croft)  

The learners who will be working on the project are in the process of being identified and will be confirmed nearer the start date in March. We would ask for support during the 8 weeks the learners will be involved.