Multi‐award winning Edinburgh author, Nicola Morgan, has just become Scotland’s first Patron of Reading. The new scheme is the brainchild of Tim Redgrave, dynamic Head of a school in Wales, and children’s author, Helen Pielichaty.
Nicola blogged about the scheme and mentioned that she was available and by 9.30 that morning, the librarian at Larbert High School near Falkirk had contacted her and everything was agreed that very same day. Two more schools emailed that morning but each author is only allowed to commit to one school.
Nicola says, “I was thrilled when Larbert High School contacted me so quickly. We’d been in contact before because pupils enjoy Fleshmarket, and I instantly knew I wanted to commit to being their Patron of Reading. I can’t wait to meet the enthusiastic pupils and staff and see what we can achieve together over the next three years!”
Kimberly Bryce, Librarian:- “We are all very proud and excited that Larbert High School will be the first school in Scotland to take part in the Patron of Reading scheme, and very glad that Nicola Morgan is willing to take this journey with us. We are all great fans of Nicola’s novels and one of our S2 classes study Fleshmarket, so I knew she’d be a fantastic choice. Nicola was the 2011 winner of Falkirk Council’s RED book award for her novel Wasted and was also nominated in 2010 for Deathwatch, and this speaks volumes about how much our pupils enjoy her work. By working with Nicola we hope to increase the quality of creative writing, improve literacy levels across the school and increase the number of pupils reading for enjoyment. We hope that being able to work closely with Nicola will bring something special to the classroom and increase pupils’ confidence in reading and writing.”
John Doherty, PT of English + Literacy: “This is really exciting as we are always looking to introduce our pupils at Larbert High to experienced writers. Through meeting and listening to professionals, pupils undoubtedly gain greater insight into the writing process and, thus, their writing improves. Over the next two years creative writing is being afforded a greater weighting and status in the examinations that all pupils will sit in English. Having Nicola Morgan as our Patron of Reading is a really exciting opportunity to improve all aspects of pupil literacy at Larbert High School and make a real difference.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
