Wings of Glory with Dermot O'Leary
The Little Bookshop approached GSAL in order to collaborate with an author visit from Dermot O’Leary, who was promoting his book Wings of Glory. We were able to live-stream the event to our partnership schools The event was formatted as an interview conversation between GSAL library Owen Clement and Dermot, but it also included a videoed draw-a-long with the illustrator, and finished with Dermot answering questions from children onsite and over Zoom.
The event took place in the primary school hall. We streamed the event to over 30 classroom across over 20 schools, reaching over 900 children. We were also given permission to record the event and post it on Vimeo so that partner schools could access it for two months after the event.
Aims
To share an engaging and educational workshop with our partner primary schools for their pupils in Y5. Dermot O’Leary spoke about his inspirations, his love of history since childhood and his interest in birds. The session also included a recorded draw-a-thon led by the illustrator and a Q&A session by those in the room and those streaming from their classrooms.
To reach the maximum involvement from partnership schools, we needed to offer the following:
1. An effective and engaging author who could inspire and engage pupils in the primary school hall as well as those live-streaming from their classrooms;
2. A venue (the GSAL primary school hall); and
3. Technical expertise (Leeds Videos) to deliver a successful life broadcast and recording that could be available afterwards on Vimeo.
Background
GSAL has worked closely with The Little Bookshop in the past for primary author visits, included a recent talk with Cressida Cowell.
GSAL started offering life-streamed workshops during lockdown and realised this was a convenient way to reach more pupils with engaging and educational content relevant to their curriculum.
GSAL has been running workshops for primary schools for more than ten years and running live-streamed workshops since 2020.
Resources
Internet access in schools;
Videographer with multiple cameras (close and wide to maintain interest);
Zoom webinar to field questions and responses from the live virtual audience;
Non-teaching staff at GSAL and classroom teacher per class in remote audience;
Workshops offered for free.
Impact
Quantitative:
Over 900 pupils from over 30 classrooms were able to live-stream the event.
Qualitative:
Feedback via email expressed enthusiasm and appreciation for watching the live stream and for the link to the recording.
Pupil Involvement
GSAL pupils in the room and the partner schools that streamed the event all were able to watch the talk and participate in the drawing and the Q&A.
Most pupils were in Y5, though some schools included other school years.
Frequency
GSAL offers workshops with its partnership schools approximately once per term. Events like this one through the bookshop are additional.
