BookFest Announces Word Up! Events For Schools
Wimbledon BookFest has announced its celebrated Word Up! programme of events for schools – welcoming some of the UK’s leading children’s authors to the New Wimbledon Theatre this autumn.
Cressida Cowell, Nikita Gill, Olaf Falafel, SF Said, George The Poet, Sathnam Sanghera, Katherine Rundell, Kate Wakeling, David Walliams and Stephen Mulhern feature in a stellar line-up which will run alongside the main Festival (12 – 22 October)
The author events are just one part of the Word Up! programme – which also includes an annual Young Writers Competition, World Book Day events, and projects aimed at local sixth formers.
Every year the Festival enables over 10,000 children and young people from over 100 schools to take part in projects focused on literacy.
Highlights from this year’s Word Up! include a World Book Day celebration with Sir Lenny Henry and an Introduction to University event, held in partnership with the University of Roehampton which gave six hundred students from local state schools the chance to experience undergraduate life for themselves and to hear from Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
The theme of this year’s Young Writers Competition was ‘Home’ with young writers being encouraged to think about what home means to them. The winners will be announced at the New Wimbledon Theatre on the 10th of October.
Fiona Razvi, Festival Founder and Director said: “Education has always been central to the work of Wimbledon BookFest since we began 16 years ago. We now work with 150 schools across South London and this year alone over 10,000 young people will have attended our events or taken part in BookFest projects.”
You can find out more about Word Up! events here
