Our Class Loves This Book award

The winner of Our Class Loves This Book: The John Downing Award 2018 has been announced. The award encourages teachers to read and explore books shortlisted for the previous year's UKLA Book Award.

UKLA is delighted to announce that the winners are Lynn Stuart and Heather Sanderson and their P3 pupils from Wallace Primary School, Renfrewshire for their work based on Pugs of the Frozen North by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre. Their work will be presented at the UKLA International Conference in Cardiff July 6th-8th, and at the UKLA National conference in Bristol March 2019. UKLA also hopes to arrange for the authors to visit the school to meet the children who love their books! Roger McDonald , chair of judges, wrote, "We particularly enjoyed the way that Lynn Stuart and Heather Sanderson had enthused their class with Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre's hilarious book culminating in a most wonderful Pug Fest!" Their entry included a video showing the class engaged in a range of creative activities, enabling the children to immerse themselves in the text. The submission showed how the text had been used across the curriculum and also included a visit from some Pug breeders. Other submissions that also impressed the judges came from: Alice Atkinson and her P6 class from Westpark Primary Aberdeen for work based on The Reluctant journal of Henry K. Larsen by Susin Nielsen Mary Hunter and her P6/7 class at St Fergus Primary Renfrewshire for work based on The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell Y2 from Redfield Educate Together, Bristol for their work based Grandad's Island, by Benji Davies These schools will be invited to be ambassadors for the award and to share their work at UKLA's National conference in March 2019. Teachers are encouraged to explore the UKLA shortlisted books in detail, by not only looking at the author and the text, but also immersing their classes into worlds of possibility thinking. The winning teacher and author receive a framed, signed limited edition print of the award logo designed by author/illustrator Chris Wormell.