The purpose of our Fred Harris Education Award programme is to encourage reading and develop libraries. We achieve this by donating books and funding for libraries in the ten junior schools in our district. The books we choose each year are related to Cornwall; either about Cornish culture and history or written by Cornish authors.
Within the bundle of books we donated to schools in 2022, the firm favourites of the children were from the ecologically themed series called Wild Tribe Heroes. Their author, Ellie Jackson, lives in Looe and RCT invited her to spend a day in Redruth visiting as many schools as possible.
A tight schedule was planned for Monday 27th February 2023 and all five visit slots were snapped up quickly in response to the opportunity. With just a short break between, Chair of Trustees Chris Hailey escorted Ellie Jackson on her visits to St Day and Carharrack Community School, Treleigh Community Primary School, Trewirgie Junior School, Pencoys Primary School and Treloweth School.
Ellie read one of her books to the children, selected by the school in advance, which offered links to their curriculum topics of nature, pollution and community responsibility. Falling at the beginning of World Book Week, this was also well timed to hear what it is like to be an author, and the students made the most of the short sessions by posing interesting questions.
Redruth Charity Trust extends its thanks to Ellie Jackson for giving her time to inspire and encourage Redruth’s young readers.
It is always exciting as a children’s author to visit schools – to actually read your books and see the children’s reactions is a very powerful and inspiring experience and my visit to the Redruth schools with the Redruth Charity Trust was no exception. The positive approach to the books in each school was evident from the start and after visiting 5 schools and speaking to over 800 children was absolutely fantastic. I certainly went home buzzing with ideas for new stories and that was all thanks to the wonderful children and their enthusiasm and energy. Thank you to all the schools and children involved and I look forward to coming back to Redruth again with the Trust in the future.
Ellie Jackson, Author Wild Tribe Heroes Books
The children really enjoyed Ellie’s visit, what a fantastic start to World Book Week! Ellie’s stories have inspired our children to write some great stories this week and have encouraged us to think about the way we use plastic in our lives. Thank you for all your help in organising this wonderful opportunity, which our whole school was able to enjoy.
St Day and Carharrack Community School
Ellie Jackson’s range of books about animals and the threats that they face link perfectly with our current learning about conservation and extinction. It was lovely to hear Ellie’s latest book ‘Ziggy’s Frightening Flight’ and learn about what we can do to help to protect bees, such as planting a variety of flowers in our gardens. The children then had the opportunity to ask Ellie lots of questions about what life is like as an author and where she gets her inspiration from. We’d like to thank Ellie for taking the time to visit our school and Redruth Charity Trust for their support.
Trewirgie Junior School
