NEWS
DAVID GANDY LAUNCHES SCHOOL READING CAMPAIGN
Supermodel and entrepreneur David Gandy is encouraging primary schools in Kent to take part in the country ’ s biggest one-week reading competition in a bid to help improve children ’ s literacy levels across the country .
Ten Million Minutes , run by education charity Achievement for All , aims to get children reading at every primary school in England during the challenge which takes place from 9th – 15th March 2017 .
David Gandy is encouraging Kent schools to challenge their pupils to read for as many minutes as they can in one week . The school which reads for the highest number of minutes by the end of the week has the chance to win a brand new library or reading area for their school worth £ 10,000 , courtesy of Peters .
David , who is ambassador for the charity , is a firm believer in the importance of reading to a child ’ s progress . He said : “ Reading is so important in everyday life – it ’ s a vital skill to have yet many children struggle . The Ten Million Minutes campaign is designed to make reading fun for everyone and I would personally like to encourage every single primary school in Kent to take part .”
The campaign is also being backed by an abundance of prolific authors including Anthony Horowitz , Anne Fine , Jonathan Meres , Ian Douglas and Claire Freedman .
Primary schools can register for the challenge on the Achievement for All website
( http :// afaeducation . org ) where they can login daily during the challenge to enter the number of minutes read by their school . A live online leaderboard will calculate their position , so they can race other schools to get to the top . To ensure the competition is fair for schools of all sizes , the leaderboard will be decided on the average number of minutes read per child .
Along with the main prize , there are some fabulous runner-up prizes : Three £ 250 vouchers to spend on primary resources with Oxford University Press , five bundles of notebooks and filing products from Nuco International Ltd , and 20 fun sticker packs courtesy of The Sticker Factory .
NEW ROMNEY ARTIST THROUGH TO THE SEMI-FINAL OF SKY ARTS PORTRAIT ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Kent artist Phoebe Cripps has won a place in the semi-final of Sky Arts ’ Portrait Artist of the Year ( PAOTY ). Phoebe , who lives in New Romney , painted the portrait of television personality Sue Perkins , and it was Phoebe ’ s portrait that Sue chose to take home at the end of the show .
Phoebe , who ’ s husband Grant is also an artist and competed in Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year in 2015 , went to Cottesmore school in West Sussex as a young child where she had also exhibited her work . She attended senior school in Benenden and now lives and works with Grant in New Romney .
You can watch Phoebe in action on Sky Arts On Demand , while the semi-final will air on 7th March at 8pm on Sky Arts .
Hundreds of entries were received for the 2017 competition , giving the judges the difficult task of whittling them down to just 54 artists . The winner of Portrait Artist the Year 2016 is awarded a £ 10,000 commission and £ 500 to spend on art materials at Cass Art .
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