An Inspiring Carnegie Trip: 2025 Winners and Author Visit
On Friday, students and staff at Kings Langley School warmly welcomed visitors from Bushey Meads School for the much-anticipated announcement of the 2025 Carnegie Medal winners....
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On Friday, students and staff at Kings Langley School warmly welcomed visitors from Bushey Meads School for the much-anticipated announcement of the 2025 Carnegie Medal winners....
Posted by Emma Denton
A group of excited students swapped their exercise books for broomsticks on Monday as they stepped into the enchanting world of Harry Potter during a school trip to Warner Bros....
Posted by Emma Denton
As part of their GCSE English curriculum, Year 10 students are currently studying a range of poetry from 1900 onwards focused on the themes of ‘Power and Conflict’....
Posted by Amy Druce
At Bushey Meads, the English faculty has recently been trialing Sparx Reader, an innovative tool designed to engage students with reading and promote a love for books. The results...
Posted by Anthony Carter
This term in English, Year 10 has been studying Power and Conflict poetry for our GCSE English Literature Paper 2. We’ve been learning the context of the poet and the poem, the...
Posted by Madeline Silla
It was inspiring to see how many of our hardworking Year 11 students attended the carefully planned English GCSE revision sessions delivered by some of our top English teachers...
Posted by Jeremy Turner
To celebrate World Book Day, I decided to take my students out of the classroom and into the fresh air of the Year 7 Zone to enjoy some sunshine while reading. Instead of being...
Posted by admin
Mr Carter, Head of English, is supporting groups of Year 11 students in the lead up to their English Language and Literature GCSE exams. This week the focus was on the set text ‘A...
Posted by Sara Ash - Deputy Headteacher
We are thrilled to announce an opportunity for years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12. You can earn a place to go to the Harry Potter Studios simply by completing a book review after you have...
Posted by Emma Denton
Tuesday morning started with a visit to see Mrs Seed, SENDCo, teach her Year 11 English class. The students were actively preparing for their forthcoming exams, doing past paper...
Posted by Sara Ash - Deputy Headteacher
On Friday, students and staff at Kings Langley School warmly welcomed visitors from Bushey Meads School for the much-anticipated announcement of the 2025 Carnegie Medal winners. Readers from across year groups gathered, buzzing with excitement to discover which outstanding books had won some of the most prestigious prizes in children’s literature.
The day was made even more memorable by the presence of award-winning author Katherine Johnson, who gave an inspiring talk followed by a hands-on creative writing workshop. Katherine shared heartfelt insights about her journey as a writer, the challenges she faced in creating authentic characters, and the powerful role stories play in reflecting and reshaping our world. Her talk truly resonated with both aspiring writers and enthusiastic readers, sparking lively Q&A sessions and animated discussions. During the workshop, students had the opportunity to dive into their own writing, guided by Katherine’s expert advice and encouragement. Many left with the beginnings of powerful stories — and a renewed confidence in their own creative voices.
In addition to the author visit, we celebrated the shortlisted titles for this year’s Carnegie Medal with student reviews, debates, and votes for personal favourites. Conversations throughout the library showed just how much these books had made an impact.
The winners were announced as follows:
Carnegie Medal for Writing: Glasgow Boys by Margaret McDonald – At just 27, Margaret is the youngest-ever winner!
Carnegie Medal for Illustration: Clever Crow, illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill (written by Chris Butterworth).
Shadowers’ Choice (Writing) and Dacorum Winner: King of Nothing by Nathanael Lessore.
Shadowers’ Choice (Illustration): Homebody by Theo Parish.
All these fantastic books are available in the LRC for students to enjoy!
A Student’s Perspective: Thujani’s Carnegie Shadowing Experience
Hi, my name is Thujani. When I went to the Carnegie shadowing event at Kings Langley, we had the chance to talk with students from other schools about the books we had read. Then we found out which book won, and I was surprised that it was King of Nothing because I really liked Final Year.
After that, we got to meet the author Katherine Johnson. She talked about her life and what inspired her to become a writer and create stories. We finished with some fun writing tasks where we each wrote our own stories — I really enjoyed that part! Finally, Katherine signed some books, and we handed them over to the Bushey Meads librarians.
This day was a wonderful celebration of reading, creativity, and inspiration, and we’re excited to continue exploring many different books together next year!
Tuesday morning started with a visit to see Mrs Seed, SENDCo, teach her Year 11 English class. The students were actively preparing for their forthcoming exams, doing past paper...
January 30th to 6th February, is National Storytelling Week. If you want to find out more about the group, the work they do and some fact sheets that help aspiring writers, this...