March Newsletter
"Little Green Pig writing can take you anywhere. When you’re in Little Green Pig, everyone has a different story to tell the universe! We can be imaginative all together." Freya, aged 8
Hello Little Green Pig friends and followers,
Happy World Book Day 2023! What will you be doing to celebrate your favourite books this week, we wonder? Perhaps you'll discover new books to love or even create your own, as our young writers do.
We've got lots of bright tales to tell and warming stories to share with you in this newsletter, as we head into March with a spring in our step.
Since our last newsletter in December, we've been busy with lots of creativity and development. We've welcomed fresh faces to the Little Green Pig family, including 24 new children joining After School Clubs across Sussex. We have 11 new Story Mentors and 2 Workshop Leaders joining our team, who you can find out more about below.
Want to get involved in supporting what we are doing? Read on to be first to find out about our next Fun Fundraising venture this Spring. We're seeking sponsors for our first ever Brighton Book Walk event that our Trustees, volunteers, staff (and a few four-legged friends) will take part in.
Look out for more Little Green Pig updates coming soon, including the launch of our pilot podcast episode, our new Coastal Conversations project and a spoken word film!
As always, remember our values: Be Brave, Be Open, Use Your Imagination, Take Pride and Have Fun!
From all of the Little Green Pig team :)
The young writers from across our 6 regular clubs have created so many wonderful words already this term. From Whitehawk to Worthing, they've written amazing responses to prompts including flash fiction, heroes and villians characters, and film storyboarding.
Wonder where the moon came from? Monday Club have dreamt up the answers- enjoy some of their original Moon Origin Myths below.
Take a look at some of the Anti-Valentine's Poems that Thursday Club imagined monsters might message with one another, as they explored opposites and turning classic love imagery on its head! Beware, some are a bit scary!
A very warm welcome to our two new workshop leaders Rayna and Rosanna!
Rayna Haralambieva is now our Workshop Leader at Wednesday Club, based at The Laurels Primary School in Worthing. She is a short story writer who aspires to have an entourage of writerly cats!
Her fiction is published in Reflex Fiction, Litro, Strands and Bath Flash Fiction. Rayna feels lucky to have facilitated various creative writing, storytelling and drama workshops for children - the best storytellers of all. Her favourite word is petirrojo, which is Spanish for robin.
Welcome also to Rosanna Lowe! She is the latest Workshop Leader to join our team, launching our new After School Club on Tuesdays at Langney Primary School in Eastbourne.
Rosanna is a writer, storyteller, and sometimes a performer! Rosanna has written for theatre and screen, as well as poetry and travel writing. She was a sketch writer for the CBBC Horrible Histories series. She also writes about Shimajiro, a very famous teddy bear in Japanese comics!
"I volunteer as a Story Mentor because I love helping children develop valuable skills and nurturing their amazing and creative ideas. I have gained important skills in working with children, which makes my CV stand out from the crowd.
I absolutely love watching the children get excited about the prompts and hearing their unique responses to them. They are all so talented and inventive. For example, one child responded amazingly well to the "Miniature Worlds" prompt. She wrote the most she'd ever written, and performed her writing to the group with wonderful confidence. We all feel very proud of her progression within the club." Angelica
"My daughter Freya started coming to Little Green Pig in September last year. Freya absolutely loves it, as soon as she's finished one of the sessions she starts counting down to the next one.
I know she enjoys playing lots of games at the After School Club. She absolutely loves the creative writing too.
If any other parents are thinking about signing up their child to a club, I would say absolutely! Freya really loves the sessions and her confidence and creativity has really grown. Their vocabulary has improved too and they're just going from strength to strength."
Anna, parent of a Little Green Pig club member
For more information on our After School Clubs, and to sign up your child, visit our website: littlegreenpig.org.uk/signup
Last month, our Whole Hog Quiz night returned and was a huge success, raising a grand total of £2014! Quizzers were in for an evening of laughter, led by our quizmaster Pete Lawson, with a worldwide theme and rounds ranging from "If Pigs Could Fly" to "Number 7". There was a fun bonus round featuring plasticine pig sculpting too!
The winners took home an overflowing basket full of books, with second and third place teams also winning stacks of new reading material. We ended the evening with our amazing raffle, with all prizes kindly donated by lots of local businesses including hotel stays, afternoon teas and yoga lessons. With thanks again to Grand Central, Nicky Crabb Yoga, Keanu is Coming, Headmasters, Gunns Florists, Gamely Games, Lavender Room, The Treatment Rooms, The Tap House, Shoreham, Picturehouse, My Brighton Hotel, Chocolatician, Eastbourne Grand, Papersmiths, Artist Residence, Bird and Blend, Brighton Grand, Soho House, The Bath Arms, Capital Crime Festival, Yellow Wave, and Starfish and Coffee for their generous donations of prizes for our raffle. Well done to all who took part!
Sponsors wanted for the Big Brighton Book Walk on Sunday 16th April!
Our Trustees have already been planning another fundraiser. Little Green Pig's Big Brighton Book Walk is a sponsored walk for trustees, charity volunteers and friends. We'll trot 5 miles through Brighton, following a new audio trail of locations featured in Brighton-set books. We'll be stopping at featured locations to listen to readings of literary extracts, many recorded especially for us by the authors themselves and including some of our young writers too! We'd love you to sponsor us- please donate and find out more by clicking the button below. Every penny counts, and even £5 would help us reach our target!
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