Local author presents reading awards to students

Local author Rosie Rushton visited Northampton College today and presented a series of certificates and prizes to students completing the national ‘Six Book Challenge’.

Local author Rosie Rushton visited Northampton College today (Monday 28th May) and presented a series of certificates and prizes to students completing the national ‘Six Book Challenge’.

The Six Book Challenge invites less confident readers to read six books and record their reading in a diary in order to receive incentives, a certificate and the chance to enter a national prize draw.

Northampton College has been taking part in the challenge since its launch in 2008 and now five years on they have seen a substantial increase in the amount of students taking part.

Librarian, Lynn Goodman and organiser of the challenge said “It’s fantastic to see lots of familiar faces along with many new students taking part in the challenge, I think in the first year we saw 26 students taking part and this year it has risen to almost 300. Seeing the confidence and reading skills improve in those taking part is just delightful.”

Author Rosie Rushton, one of the UK’s most popular teen writers spoke about the importance of the challenge; “Reading, no matter what the content or medium is so important in developing new skills and confidence in reading and writing. Every author has a different style and every student is different and so embracing this and encouraging more young people to read is invaluable.” After presenting the awards Rosie set students a new challenge, encouraging them to write in a new style that was unfamiliar to them and to “discover their hidden creativeness.”

Every student who completed the challenge was presented with a certificate and were able to pick a book of their choice as an additional prize. Genevieve Clarke, Programme Manager from the Reading Agency also attended the event and spoke of how Northampton College was “leading the way in this initiative.”

Principal Len Closs closed the ceremony by saying “It is an absolute pleasure to see so many students taking part in this challenge and to benefit from the fantastic facilities and staff we have available here at Northampton College. Reading, study and research is at the heart of our college and something we value very dearly. I would like to congratulate and thank our staff for their fantastic support in this challenge and to the students taking part.”

17 year old Tristran Wrighton is studying performing arts at Northampton College and took part in the ‘Six Book Challenge’. Tristran says “Before doing the 6 book challenge I really didn’t like reading at all. However, once I got into it I really enjoyed it and found it a lot easier than I thought especially since my tutor told me I could download books to my-phone with free app. Doing the SBC has boosted my confidence in reading more books and I’m finding it easier the more I do. I now like going to the library to work, it’s so quiet and comfortable. To anyone thinking of doing the challenge I’d say, it’s not as hard as it looks, and once you get into it you will not want to stop.”