News

Author Visit

We were proud to welcome Skye McKenna to Cecil Jones Academy on the 3rd of March in honour of World Book Day 2023. Over 100 Year 7 students attended a workshop where they learnt about Skye’s early life in Australia and took a keen interest in learning about the dangerous animals she encountered in the remote part she lived in.

Skye shared with students that her inspiration as a young person was her librarian who showed her a wide range of books to engage with, before sharing some characters from her book with students. Students learnt about scary fairies, goblins, will o wisp and river hags who have all influenced her book. The workshop ended with students testing their own natural magic by identifying mushrooms and constellations.

Klea of 7J said, “I really enjoyed Skye reading part of her book to us and the Fledgling test”
Lacie of 7O said, “I really like getting to know more authors as I am trying to read more.”
Fatima said, “I loved that Skye shared her back story and why she wrote the book as she has a passion for it.”

Another student said, “I enjoyed Skye’s visit because she shared enough information to inspire others and told us that it is fine to start being bad at writing and you will improve.”