Ruby shines again!

• 5 Stars

Literacy Time PLUS young columnist and Film Education’s Junior Film Critic of the Year, Ruby Daniels, has been chosen as one of 12 ‘Shine Reporters’ working across the UK to help celebrate Shine Week from 6th to 10th July.

6th to 10th July 2009 is Shine Week in the UK. This DCSF initiative celebrates young people’s talent right across the country. Last year, more than 2,500 school and organisations participated in Shine, with around a million young people taking part.

Central to the week are 12 Shine Reporters, who are being invited to identify and capture their talent on film and help the organisers to highlight the best of the talent across their region.

East of England

Representing the East of England is ten-year-old Ruby Daniels, from Corpusty Primary School in Norwich, whose reviewing skills have already been acknowledged by the National Year of Reading and who is a regular columnist and reviewer for Literacy Time PLUS. Ruby is also an award-winning film critic, having won the category of Junior Film Critic at the 2008 Young Film Critic Awards for her review of Kung Fu Panda .

In her role as a Shine Reporter, Ruby will be creating a video report about her personal talent – how she discovered it, the support she has received and how sees herself developing her skills in the future. She will also be creating a vox pop to find out more about the talents of others in her school and discover what talent means to them. And she will also be highlighting the talent in her region of the country by keeping a blog which, along with her other Shine Reporter films, can be viewed on her own page on the the Radiowaves network.

Ruby’s fellow Shine reporters

Joining Ruby as Shine Reporters are:

Representing the North West

Natasha Sweeny – a talented athlete from Manchester who won a National Kick Boxing title at 11 and last month won the North West title as part of the World Kick Boxing Association competition.

Stevie Goodwin – An 11-year-old who has been involved in the performing arts since the age of three and who currently attends dancing (tap, ballet, jazz, national), drama and singing classes.

Representing Yorkshire and Humberside

The Garforth Programmers – Alex Acres, Tom Beedle, Adam Bowes and Rob Skean, a group of Flash computer programmers from Leeds.

Hoverboard Builders – A group of students from St Lawrence Academy in Scunthorpe who have been working on inventing and building the perfect ‘hoverboard’ to enter into in a national engineering competition later this year.

Representing the West Midlands

Becky Smith – An aspiring tennis player from Bilton School in Rugby.

Stuart Cowlan – A peer mentor for the National Mentoring and Befriending Foundation.

Representing the East Midlands

Bex Bailey – A budding political journalist from Nottingham.

Julia Komor – A graphic designer and band promoter from Corby in Northamptonshire.

Accompanying Ruby in the East of England

The Band with No Name – A group of six talented singers and musicians from the Simon Balle School in Hertford.

Representing London

Amar Ramchandani – A Year 6 child at Springwell Junior School whose approach to dealing with his Insulin dependent diabetes was recognised by West Middlesex hospital where he recently became one of the youngest people ever to have an insulin canular pump fitted. Amar has become a diabetes mentor at school and at the hospital.

Representing the South East

Charlotte Clarke – A ten-year-old writer and reporter from Milton Keynes.

Wilmington Girls – Ellen Oaten, Emma Mullen and Lydia Grimsham – a singing and dancing trio from The Grammar School for Girls, Wilmington.

Representing the South West

Connor Wakeham – A talented photographer from Churcham Primary School in Gloucestershire who recently won a Highly Commended prize at the Cheltenham Young Photographer of the Year competition, for a wonderful photograph called ‘CAT’ . Connor is also learning how to play the drums.

More about Shine Week

Embracing the energy and enthusiasm of young people, teachers and youth workers, Shine Week creates a real buzz across the country and in the media and is a really exciting way to celebrate the talent that every young person has. Shine Week is about celebrating all talent, whether that is in the performing arts, in technology, science or working in the community. For more inforamtiojn visit the website at www.shineweek.co.uk.

Ruby visits Literacy Time PLUS

This summer, Ruby Daniels will be visiting the offices of Literacy Time PLUS magazine to see how one of her columns goes from manuscript to print and to find out more about becoming a writer. Look out for a report on her visit in the November issues of Literacy Time PLUS.