The Author Classroom Connection – and a Very Special Guest

There is no doubt that reading is at the heart of everything that we do at Wellington College Bangkok. In our Junior School students are read to in their first weeks in Pre Nursery and are accomplished readers of chapter books, novels, non fiction and much more by the time they progress to Senior School.

We value reading skills highly, we value creativity and writing, we listen and we learn. We love books so much in Junior School that we have named all our classes after authors. These are all our author named classes – how many do you recognise?

• Donaldson (Julia Donaldson was the Childrens’ Laureate in the UK 2011 – 2013. We bet you’ve read The Gruffalo or Stickman or The Highway Rat!)
• Yamada
• Carle (We’ve ALL read The Very Hungry Caterpillar)
• Lucas
• Tomlinson
• Dahl (Roald Dahl is one of the best selling childrens authors of all time – who is your favourite character? Charlie? Matilda? James or the BFG?)
• Atinuke
• Kitamura
• Lewis
• Ibbotson
• Deary
• Morpurgo (Michael Morpurgo was the UK Childrens’ Laureate in 2003-2005. His stories are often about animals, very clever animals, and War Horse is famous on stage, screen and page the world over)
• Rundell
• Almond
• Shelton
• Pullman (Philip Pullman is one of the UK’s most popular authors for children and adults alike. The His Dark Materials trilogy is read around the world inside and out of the classroom. You can also watch it on the big and small screen)
• Zephaniah (Benjamin Zephaniah is one of the best loved poets in the UK today. He has enthralled audiences for decades and is responsible for broadening the appeal of poetry across generations, classes, genders and heritage)

Every child in Years 1 – 6 is in a class named after one of these authors. Every year students read texts by their class namesake and establish affiliations. We are VERY impressed by Year 5 Shelton class this year. Teacher, Joel Witham has just joined us this year and he and his class decided they wanted to meet their namesake – author Dave Shelton. Mr Shelton is a very popular writer from the UK. He created the comic strip “Good Dog, Bad Dog” and his debut novel A Boy And A Bear In A Boat, was shortlisted for several awards in the UK.

Mr Whitham contacted Mr Shelton who lives in Cambridge in England – and he was VERY excited to hear that there was a class named after him in Bangkok, Thailand! Mr Whitham told us –

Throughout the week, the children in Y5 Shelton Class explored the career and works of their class author, Dave Shelton. After researching and presenting on his journey from comic writer to renowned children's author, the children enjoyed reading and discussing extracts from several of his books, including 'The Book Case (An Emily Lime Mystery)', 'Thirteen Chairs', and 'Good Dog, Bad Dog'. The class will do a book study on perhaps his most famous book later in the year - 'A Boy and A Bear in a Boat'. After learning so much about him, the class were very excited to have the opportunity to meet him and ask him some burning questions such as, 'What inspired you to become a writer?', 'What is your process for writing books?' and 'Can we see your dog, Barney?'

Mr. Shelton was very happy to share his experiences and thoughts with the children, saying that he felt 'honoured' to have a class named after him. The lucky children were even given a sneak peak of his next book, due to be released next year!

This was such an exciting experience for the children and it really brought the books to life. Here’s what some of them thought –

“I was excited because I got to meet him and after the meeting I felt inspired to read books!” – Doln

“I felt really happy because I’ve always liked books and so meeting an author was really GREAT!” – Series

“I felt amazing because I got to meet a famous author” – Tani

Which famous author will our students meet next? There’s a challenge for every student and every teacher!

To find out more about all these authors talk to our amazing Head of Libraries – Ms Erin Ferguson