News
April 2011
Shoo Fly goes head to head with the big boys and wins a prestigious national award.
Once upon a time a Sunderland mum sat down and started writing stories. Gingerbread men, naughty pirates and wily wolves sprang out of her mind and onto the page. But rather than turning them into normal books, Anne Curtis started a different kind of publishing company altogether. Shoo Fly Publishing makes books that children read and interact with on their computers and the results have truly caught the imagination of the education world.
Last month, Shoo Fly, in partnership with EMAS UK won the BESA Education Resources Best Education Book for its Pip story. Pip is a story about what it's like to start a new life in a strange place while missing old friends and familiar haunts and was created by Anne and her team to help children from different countries who have moved to the UK. Translated into 22 different languages, Pip has proved to be a big hit.
Shoo Fly was also shortlisted in the Innovation Category for their Pirate Shared Adventure software resource. And it¿s not the first time the company has gained national recognition. Since Anne started up in 2003, Shoo Fly has won the BESA Education Resources Best Primary Resource, the BESA Education Resources Best Secondary Resource, and the BESA Innovation in Education award.
For the BESA awards more than 30 education professionals look for resources, organisations and teachers that make a real difference to education each year. By testing and identifying the best resources available to today' s schools and classrooms, schools can look to the finalists, and the soon to be announced winners, as exemplary companies with practical products that are fit for purpose and provide real value for money.
Anne, who works from her office at St Peter's Gate alongside the rest of the Shoo Fly team, says, We were really pleased to win this award. We are competing against multi-million pound companies with hundreds of staff members and we are more than holding our own.