The initiative, created by the Schools Engagement Team, provides Year 12 students with an opportunity to volunteer to become reading mentors and be partnered with Year 8 students.  

The project launched in January with a training session from Christine who set out the expectations of the programme and explored why we read and what the students could take from the sessions.  

Since then, each week for the 10-week course, the pairs have met in the Library at Tutor Times on Fridays for 20 minutes to work together, reading and discussing books to foster a love of reading whilst also building their confidence.  

All students taking part in the programme were then invited to attend an event at the University of Northampton to celebrate and reward all their hard work and commitment. Students were tasked with preparing a 5-minute pitch on a book that they had recently read together in the Friday sessions. They could either design a new book cover, turn the original story into a different genre or write an alternative ending or sequel to their chosen book and then present it. The rest of the group, then voted for their favourite presentation.  

The winning teams were as follows: 

First place - Ignas and Vlad who re-wrote ‘The Final Year’ by Matt Goodfellow as a horror story, taking it in a very different direction to the original! 

Second place - Grace and Jessica who created an alternative cover for ‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ by Holly Jackson. 

Third place - Diana and Eavii who designed a new front cover for the book ‘The Doomsday Date’ by Faridah Abike-Iyimide.  

Special mention - Albert in Year 8 and Grace in Year 12 who have particularly flourished during the programme. 

Librarian Claire Keelan said: “It has been wonderful to see the relationship develop between our pairs each week and to hear all the fantastic book talk taking place, be it finding a common ground of favourite books and genres or sharing memories of reading throughout their lives and how some stories have stayed with them. All students have been fantastic in every session. 

“The visit to UoN was a brilliant success and I couldn’t be prouder of how all the students conducted themselves throughout and engaged with all the tasks given to them. Each team worked incredibly hard on their chosen task and presented confidently. It was really difficult to choose between them. We had a lot of fun and it was so lovely to see how the student relationships between the pairs, built upon over the sessions, really come into their own in a different environment.  

“It has been a pleasure to work with the Schools Engagement team on this as the whole programme has been hugely successful within the school, largely due to the students’ commitment to it. Special thanks to Miss Meehan, Literacy Co-ordinator, who has helped run the programme. "We’re already looking forward to hopefully running this again next academic year.” 

Charlie in Year 8 said “I’ve really enjoyed being part of Word Warriors this year. It’s given me more time to read, and I’d recommend it to other students.” 

Thanks to the Schools Engagement Team at the University of Northampton and Corby Business Academy Library has been running the ‘Word Warriors’ programme with a select group of our Year 12 and Year 8 students.