Taylorian 2020

64 O ur annual programme of activities started in September with the welcome return of award-winning performance poet Adisa. This event, held in the run-up to National Poetry Day, revolved around the theme of truth and provided him with plenty of opportunities to engage his Upper Third Form audience with lively and thought-provoking poems, sharing memories as well as tips for writing their own poetic truths. This was followed by our Autumn Reading Week, during which the winners of our Summer Reading Challenge were revealed. Issued at the end of the Summer Term by the Library and English Department to the Lower School and to new pupils joining us in September, the Challenge encourages boys to continue with their reading over the holidays and enables us to find out what they choose to read recreationally. This year’s participants reviewed a wide variety of material, including well-being guides, popular science books, and even the school website. They produced highly creative output based on their reading, featuring illustrations, recommendations, reworked book covers, and an impressive ‘collage’ booklet. The 2019 winners were Nikhil Mehta, Perry Cross, Yuvraj Juttla, and Ethan Williams. Runners-up were Jai Elangovan, Caspar Haley, Yakub Khan, Luca McCormick, Jake Hawkes, Joseph Mitchell, Zaki Akbar, and Rahul Patel. Towards the end of the Autumn Term, the Third Form embarked on The Big Read, an annual scheme designed to inspire the boys to try book genres theymight not ordinarily pick up. The aim is to read and review at least five books from eighteen titles, specially selected by the librarians. This challenge concludes in a Grand Finale held during our Spring Term Reading Week. Unfortunately, our invited guest author, Taran Matharu, was unable to attend on the day, but he recorded a video message, which was aired at the award ceremony. A lively and emotional debate culminated in the vote for The Big Read Book of the Year, which was won for the second year in a row by the World War II adventure story Once by Morris Gleitzman. The Big Read 2020 individual prizes were awarded to Alec Meade (Winner) and Nikhil Mehta, Library Library XXXX Adisa performs his poetry to the Upper Third Form Ben Haggarty entertains pupils from MTS and MTP The Big Read 2020 individual winners