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How to get involved
Registration for the 2010 Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books is now open!
Important Dates
- Registration open: Now - click to register!
- Shortlist Announcement: 9th September 2010
- Deadline for entering the Gaelic/Scots creative writing competition: 17th December 2010
- Deadline for entering the review competition: 17th December 2010
- Deadline for submitting your votes: 28th January 2011
- Notification of review winners: January 2011
- Ceremony: February 2011 in Glasgow
Summary for individual children and young people taking part
To take part as an individual, go to register and fill in 'individual' in the field asking you for the organisation name. Under 'job title' insert 'Young Judge' and your age.
Summary for teachers and librarians
Here is a brief overview of how the Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books work. For full details, please follow the link at the bottom of the page to download our full guidelines, and an explanation of how taking part relates to A Curriculum for Excellence.
Young judges can participate in the awards in one or both of two ways:
- Reading the shortlist books in their age category and voting for the one they would like to win
- Reading the books in a paired reading scheme whereby older children read the shortlisted books in one age-group category to younger children - also suitable for reluctant readers and children with additional support needs. Click here for more details about paired reading
- Reviewing one of the books they have read and entering the review competition. Winning reviewers in each category will receive a £25 book token for themselves and a visit for their school from one of the winning writers
- Entering our Gaelic and Scots creative writing competition, the winner of which will receive an author visit to their school and book tokens for themselves. Details on the Gaelic and Scots Creative Writing competition here
Step 1: Planning
Decide which age group category(ies) you are going to get your group to judge.
• Early Years 0-7 years
• Younger Readers 8-11 years
• Older Readers 12-16 years
• The Gaelic and Scots Creative Writing Competition
Step 2: Register
Step 3: Discussion
Decide how you will work with your group. Think about whether:
• To run/start a reading group, work with a whole class or individual pupils
• To read to the pupils, record extracts or get them to read themselves
• To have discussion sessions and if so how often and what to talk about. You can find topics for discussion in the reading pack.
Step 4: Reviews and/or Creative Writing
Encourage young judges to send a review of the book they have read. All reviews are posted on Scottish Book Trust website and enter the review competition. You can also enter the Gaelic and Scots Creative Writing Competition to develop their writing in Gaelic/Scots.
Step 5: Voting
• You can run the voting in any way you please, as long as in the end you count one vote per young judge. You can use individual ballot paper for each judge (see in your reading group pack)
• Please check the total number of votes adds up to the number of children who have been involved in judging the awards in your organisation.
• Fill in your groups' votes on your online voting link (emailed to everyone who takes part in the awards) All the information about voting is here.
More information
- Download our reading group pack - a comprehensive guide to taking part
- Find out about learning opportunities in the Royal Mail Awards and how taking part relates to A Curriculum for Excellence, including the draft literacy and English experiences and outcomes