Celebrated author helps John Willmott students begin a new chapter at school

By Lisa Lockley, Assistant Headteacher, John Willmott School

The start of a new academic year is always a really exciting time and we hope that this year it was made even more special with wrapped gift each of our new Year 7s were presented with before joining us. Each student who attended our Year 6 evening with parents on  27^th June and Transition Day  on 3^rd July received a copy of ‘The House with Chicken Legs’ by highly acclaimed novelist Sophie Anderson.

This fabulous novel has been shortlisted for:  Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2019; CILIP Carnegie Medal 2019; Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2019; the 2019 Blue Peter Book Awards and also winner of Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month for May 2018.

Sophie Anderson has sent a personal video message to our newest pupils, saying, ‘I really hope you enjoy reading my book… it’s all about discovering yourself  and growing up and carving your own destiny so it’s perfect I think for when you’re starting secondary school… I wish you all the very best for your first year at John Willmott School’ . 

Every one of our students deserves to have their love of reading nurtured and their natural sense of enquiry encouraged and developed. Even our most literate students need guidance around allusions and cultural significance whilst our students who need additional support in reading know this is given so that the world becomes more accessible for them. By selecting a novel which is both challenging and engaging as well as socially significant we hope to further encourage a lifelong love of reading. ‘The House With Chicken Legs’ certainly seeks to cultivate a sense of confidence and self-belief through the thought-provoking narrative.

Our students acknowledge that the more they read, the more they will know. The more they know, the more they can make connections and develop critical understanding. The more they are exposed to words, the more they appreciate nuances around meaning and subtleties of writer’s craft. It is no exaggeration to say that the most vital skill we can nurture in our students is reflective and insightful reading; and we strive to develop an independent and enthusiastic appreciation of reading in parallel. This needs to be supported by careful selection of texts which are responsive to student needs and balanced societal and cultural significance, both past and present.

A commonality we seek to give our students is shared experiences through reading; regardless of data and prior attainment we want to provide stretch; challenge and enrichment through the reading opportunities we deliver- across every aspect of the curriculum. By doing this we show our students that reading is not exclusive and nor is it optional. By developing common reading experiences our students are able to discuss and debate and work collaboratively; this is why presenting each of them with a carefully selected piece of literature has been so important to us.

We can’t think of a better novel to have shared with each of our 195 new Year 7s. The novel, based on Russian folklore is a story about coming of age and much deserving of the critical acclaim it has received. We are so excited to hear our students’ opinions about the novel and their interpretations of twelve year old Marinka’s story as she seeks her own destiny!

Year 7 Student feedback

‘It is a really good book… different to anything else! The best book I have ever read’ Amelia

‘I really liked it, especially the language she uses for the descriptions!’ Lewis

‘Really good. I like how she creates suspense at the end of the chapters!’ Malachi

‘It reminds me of my other books I have enjoyed of the same genre… it’s a great book to read’ Harvey

‘Amazing! I loved the protagonist. I enjoyed it a lot’ Jahvaughn

‘My house has chicken legs. Two or three times a year, without warning, it stands up in the middle of the night and walks away from where we’ve been living. It might walk a hundred miles or it might walk a thousand, but where it lands is always the same. A lonely, bleak place at the edge of civilization’

The House with Chicken Legs

Sophie Anderson