From scribblers to scribes: primary kids publish their own book

A class of primary school children in Moston already have something to put on their CVs after becoming published authors - at the age of 8.

Pupils at Lily Lane Junior School in Moston have collectively rewritten and retold an ancient Nigerian tale called The Tortoise and the Dancing Palm Tree, which has now been published and is about to be presented to them at North City Library on Tuesday (5 October). 
  
The fable is about a magical tortoise who uses a dancing tree as a decoy to scare off villagers so that he can steal their food from the market. When the king - or oba - finds out he creates a statue covered in glue in the market place, which the tortoise eventually gets stuck to. According to the tale the palm tree is standing in the market place today and children still go there to listen to the story. 
  
Working with specialist teacher Jackie Ould, and class teacher Kathryn Sykes, the class split into groups to re-tell the story in sections in their own words and expressions. Jackie wrote up the text and then the whole class edited the story on an interactive whiteboard. 
  
"The beauty of the process is that every child is included and they don't have to be good writers to contribute. The teacher is the scribe and the children interpret the story verbally and develop their language and vocabulary together," says Jackie. 
  
"Similarly, with the artwork - each child illustrates sections of the tale which are then used as collages in the book, so that everyone makes a contribution." 
  
Jackie, 53, whose post is shared between Manchester City Council and Manchester University, is no stranger to the writing process as this is now the eighth book based on a folk tale that she has re-written with primary school children across the city. Themes for each story are carefully researched and where possible the origin of the folk tale is based on the racial heritage of pupils in the class. 
  
She says: "The books are a way of celebrating creativity and sharing the rich multicultural backgrounds in Manchester's schools. All the children are credited as authors and each book includes a class picture. There's also a credit about the origins of the folk tale. 
  
Once the writing process is finished, which usually takes around 2-3 weeks in school, Jackie and colleagues at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust publish the book themselves using funding from Manchester City Council via a third sector Black Minority Ethnic grant. 
 
With a print run of 1,000, a free copy of each book is distributed to every school in Manchester, with additional individual copies for the contributing children. 
  
And, for the children from Lily Lane Junior School, their copies of The Tortoise and Dancing Palm Tree will be presented to them at a special launch event at North City Library on Tuesday (5 October). Their work and the published book will form part of a display as part of Black History month. 
 
For Jackie the ultimate reward is seeing the pride in pupils' faces when they see the final book : 
  
She says: "The boost in self-confidence for some of the children is incredible - especially those whose writing is not very strong. I'll never forget the reaction of one little girl in particular. She wasn't very confident and I'd praised her in class for contributing a good word to the story. When the final book was published she immediately picked it up and found it on the page, saying 'I gave you that word!' It just shows what an impact the positive feedback had made on her and stayed in her memory. 
  
"I've got a waiting list now for more schools to be involved in the book project, which I think incorporates all the best aspects of teaching. I love what I do and it's a privilege to be able to do it. After all, there's not many children who become published authors at the age of eight." 
  
Councillor Sheila Newman, Executive Member for Children's Services at Manchester City Council, said: "The storybook project has been incredibly popular, which is why so many of our schools want to be involved with it. It's a fantastic additional resource which stimulates the imagination of the whole class and includes all ability levels so the children have equal input." 
  
Councillor Mike Amesbury, Executive Member for Culture and Leisure at Manchester City Council, added: "This has been a fabulous creative experience from start to finish for the Lily Lane pupils. It has engendered a love of books and also an open mind to different cultures and their histories. Let's hope it inspires them to believe that anything is possible."