IT was ready, steady - read, for 30 pupils at Beardwood High School's summer literacy project.

The catchy title included a host of attention-grabbing activities for the group of youngsters about to start their first term in the Blackburn school.

Following a breakfast at 8.30am, each day of the two week course was packed with events, including poetry and drama workshops, story telling, a book display and a trip to Bronte country.

Our own Newspapers in Education project featured throughout the course, supplying our Story Search workbooks along with a daily delivery of our newspaper for every pupil. NIE co-ordinator Rita Shaw explained the purpose and some of the tricks of headline writing and helped pupils to complete a news and headline matching exercise.

News stories from our paper were also the inspiration for an afternoon of drama as each group performed their own short play with some fine character acting and a great deal of fun. Project director and teacher Chris Ryden was delighted with the tremendous success of the course. "The fact that we had full attendance each day speaks for itself," she said.

"Children accepted on the course are those who have already reached level three in their reading, but with this extra encouragement, we hope that they will have improved on this and will maintain their positive attitude to learning."

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