Madeley Court is an 11-16 comprehensive school located in South Telford. We have 700+ students who come from over 20 different primary schools.

The initiative to shadow the book awards was taken by the librarian in charge of our local library, Marilyn Higson. Marilyn asked us if we would like to join in, and if she could join us.

As this was to be our first contribution I invited known enthusiastic readers from years 7, 8 and 11, giving us a core of seven, to take part and we met after school each week. In order to get a 'feel' for the task it was decided to start during the spring term and use last years short list, as a dry run.

Marilyn opened proceedings by bringing as many past winners with her as she could carry and we all talked about the titles we had read. We all took a book from the short list and looked forward to our next meeting. Using the main awards criteria plus 'presentation' and then breaking them down further, we devised a review and score sheet which worked out well and added excitement to the final weeks when marks were totalled and the winner announced.

Our main aim was to enjoy reading and meeting as a group. We have all derived pleasure from discussing the books and two of our group have launched a further club for Terry Pratchett fans. I see these initiatives as just the beginning!

Partnerships between the school and public library are very strong and as the students have joint-use tickets they will be able to sustain their reading throughout the holidays. They will also have a true friend to guide them and talk to, as a result of Marilyn's enthusiasm for her work.

We have made links with other schools through e-mail and web-sites. We have enjoyed setting up out own web-site and look forward to updating it with our results, as well as reading those of others.

Next year we plan to shadow the 'Kate Greenaway' awards too. This will allow less confident readers a greater participating role! We have already had a visit from author Ann Turnbull, who introduced us to all the difficulties of writing the text for a picture book.

We are planning to visit our créche and some of our feeder schools, to try the books out - that is when we have practised the art of reading aloud and up-side down!

Quote of the year: A year eight boy repeatedly stating, -"Books are really cool"