“It was so good to spend time with yourself and your students in Scarborough and Whitby. I was amazed at their depth of understanding – obviously down to keen teaching. I was so impressed with the last book by the school, I wanted to be involved. Please pass my comment to the Head. I visit hundreds of schools and your trip was one of the best organised I have ever been involved in.”
G.P. Taylor
“Many congratulations to all concerned on the publication of ‘Fool’s Gold.’ It’s great to see teenagers involved in such an inventive project – they obviously had great fun with it, and that’s something that shouldn’t be undervalued. It was a terrific idea to include the graphic sections as well as more conventional text and the MSN conversations, and the whole thing is beautifully and professionally presented. I hope ‘Fool’s Gold’ will give as much pleasure to its readers as it did to those who took part. Thank you again for inviting me to contribute.”
Linda Newbery
“The book has arrived, and it looks fabulous. I wish you every success with it, and want to congratulate everyone involved on a great team effort. Brilliantly done!”
Alison Weir
“Many thanks for my copy of Fool’s Gold: it is a quality production which I hope will sell many, many copies. I’m proud to have played some small part in its creation.”
Robert Swindells
“What makes Fool’s Gold unique, is the bold idea that somehow adults and children can co-exist in the same book, can be co-creators of a work of art; that journalism and poetry can co-exist with cartoon and photographs and songs and that somehow they can all be as important as each other. Many educators pay lip service to the idea of writing in different forms and styles and language registers and they reduce this to multiple choice questions and SATS-satisfying exercises.
In Fool’s Gold the excitement of writing is what makes the book tick, and what makes the book a constantly unfolding treasure box of styles and approaches.
And of course in the end it’s more than a book: as the head writes in his introduction: “Fool’s Gold has and will continue to act as a catalyst to increase students’ interest and enjoyment of reading and writing alongside the development of vital personal learning and thinking skills… vital to individual and collective success in our increasingly competitive global market.”
Or, to put it less elegantly: this is Pure Gold, not Fool’s Gold…”
Ian McMillan
