The Carnegie Shadowing Group

The Carnegie Shadowing Group Visit to Moat Community College in Leicester

The CILIP Carnegie Medal is awarded annually to an outstanding book written for young people. Although the award is officially judged by a panel of Librarians, many schools form their own group to shadow the judging process by reading and discussing the short-listed titles before selecting their winner and seeing if it coincides with the judges’ choice.

This is the 7^th year that we have run a shadowing group here at Ratcliffe, and once again, we have a very lively group of Year 9 students who are meeting once a week during the summer term to share and discuss the books we have read. Over the past 3 years, we have formed a valuable partnership with Moat Community College, who also have a thriving Carnegie shadowing group, and on Monday 30^th April, Miss McKenna from the English Department and I took our group of 11 students for the first joint discussion meeting of 2018. This year, we were also joined by 13 students from Beaumont Leys School, who are participating in the scheme for the first time, so with over 50 students in the room, there were lots of opinions being hotly debated as the students shared their views on the books they have read so far. It was a real pleasure to see all the students integrating so well and also to witness the real buzz about books and reading that the shortlist has generated so far. Following the discussions, all the students were given a tour of Moat Community College, and we were all very impressed by their modern facilities.

We look forward to welcoming both Moat CC and Beaumont Leys to Ratcliffe for further discussions on the 18^th June, the day on which the judges will announce the official winner. No doubt there will be plenty more heated debate, particularly if the students don’t agree with the judges’ choice!

If you would like to find out more information about the shadowing scheme, or would like to view the Ratcliffe home page, please visit the following site https://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/shadowingsite/reading_groups.php

The Ratcliffe group can be found under “C” for “Carnegie and Cake”, Ratcliffe College

Mrs M Williams
Librarian