Newark Book Festival Schools’ Programme

At Newark Book Festival, we love working with schools!

Last year, we worked with over 1,700 students in 16 primary and secondary schools around Newark and Sherwood. We organised author visits to schools and creative workshops with writers for young people.
We work with individual schools to devise fun activities for pupils, boosting their engagement with reading and writing.

In 2023, we’re offering the following fantastic opportunities in the following schools: Orchard School; Mount C of E Primary School; Chuter Ede School; Barnby Road Primary School; King’s C of E Primary Academy; North Clifton Primary School; Muskham Primary School; John Blow Primary School; St Marys Primary School (Edwinstowe); Lowe’s Wong Primary School; Lake View Primary School; Suthers School; Priory Ruskin Academy; Joseph
Whittaker School; and Priory Pembroke School.

We are delighted to welcome a range of authors to participate in this programme including Becky Goddard-Hill, Thomas Taylor, Paula Rawsthorne, Darren Simpson, Gareth Baker, Bethany Walker, Paul Cookson, Young Journalist Academy and more.

Author Visits for Schools: A professional author, poet, storyteller, or illustrator will visit your school. You can book a writing or drawing workshop, a talk about writing and being a writer, storytelling or a reading, or activities based on the themes important to your school’s current lesson plans.
Young Journalists’ Academy Workshops: Learn to be a journalist for the day! With workshops on information gathering, writing and presenting news and current affairs, and how to tailor your writing to fit print media, online outlets, radio and TV. Workshops can be made suitable for Key Stages 2, 3, or 4.

And you can also visit the festival in Newark on Thursday 6th July for our Schools’ Day. Featuring fantastic talks and interactive workshops with professional writers, as well as a bookshop (for you to buy your own books to take home) and all in the inspiring surroundings of Newark Town Hall. This year, we have talks by Aisha Bushby, Alasdair Beckett-King and Sara Barnard!

If you or your school are interested in taking part in any of our upcoming activities, or you would like more information on any aspect of the Schools’ Programme, please email us at hello@newarkbookfestival.org.uk