World Book Night 2020
In the Gimnazija Vič English department, some of the highlights of the school year are connected to our annual celebration of World Book Night. With our creative writing competition, a number of literary-based classes and projects in the lead-up to the occasion, and a special event to mark the day itself, it has been established as a key moment in the calendar.
This year was no exception and plans were made from the very start of September to bring together schools from around the Ljubljana area to mark the occasion. The part of the project that requires the most work in advance is our micro-story competition for which students have to put forward an original story in under 100 words, a great challenge which allows them to demonstrate their original ideas and their skills with the English language.
The theme for the 2020 competition was chosen to link the event with an important anniversary in literary history. This year we chose the Poirot novels of Agatha Christie as a way of marking 100 years since the first novel to feature the famous detective was published. Students were given words and phrases from the titles of Poirot books on which to base their own stories and, although our mind goes to tales of mystery and murder when we think of that character, they were free to choose any style or genre of work they wanted.
Across both primary and secondary school levels, the competition was a great success with hundreds of stories being put forward to be considered by the judges. From fantastical fiction through to glimpses of the students’ real lives, it was a pleasure for our panel to go through so many clever and original tales.
From the start of the year, students from our school’s book club and promotions group worked on the presentation element which would mark the end of the project. Every year, the students who took part from all the different schools have joined us with their mentors to hear their work being performed publicly and also getting the chance to listen to special musical performances and readings connected to the year in the literary world.
However, this year it was impossible for this special event to take place due to restrictions brought in due to the global health crisis. Although we could not come together to enjoy the day as usual, our mentors made sure that the publications which collected all the very best pieces of work were sent out to the schools involved, along with special prizes and certificates for those judged to have produced short stories worthy of special commendation.
The mentors of the Gimnazija Vič Book Club, Blanka Klobučar and Tim Gallagher would like to thank those who worked so hard in so many different ways to make sure that, whatever was going on, we were able to allow our young writers the chance to express themselves and have their work shared in print for others to share and enjoy. Many thanks to the pupils, teachers, and project mentors from:
- OŠ Bičevje
- OŠ Brezovica pri Ljubljani
- OŠ Danile Kumar
- OŠ Dobrova
- OŠ Kolezija
- OŠ Škofljica
- OŠ Šmartno pod Šmarno goro
It can be said that this year did not go according to plan in a range of different ways but we are happy that we still managed to bring this project to an appropriate conclusion. We are confident that with the continued cooperation of those involved at different levels of this occasion that next year’s project will go ahead, keeping this strong tradition of creativity and literary celebration alive across all the schools involved.