As part of the Northern Children’s Book Festival, we were delighted to welcome to St Aidan’s Onjali Rauf, the celebrated author of ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’, as well as members of staff from Gateshead Library. Onjali delivered a thought-provoking and inspiring talk about how she became a writer and about the important issues that have influenced her books, such as anti-bullying, the refugee crisis and discrimination during World War II. She spoke in detail about one of our school values: HOPE. Onjali explained that all of her characters have something to aspire to or hope for in her stories, and that they all face adversity and challenges but overcome them in the end due to their resilience and strength of character. It was particularly exciting for our children, as our Year 5 children are currently studying ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’ and Year 6 enjoyed reading it last year when they were in Year 5. Some of the children were a little starstruck when Onjali signed their copies of her books!
