I had a great time when I visited St Leonard’s earlier in the year so I was particularly looking forward to returning.
The morning was spent with the Year 6 pupils. We explored nasty characters from books the children had read then moved on to look at two of my favourite baddies: Mrs Trunchbull and Ivana Da Cash. We looked at ways in which Roald Dahl made his character nasty and I explained how Ivana is made to be so terrifying.
The children then pulled apart a piece of unpublished text I’m working on about a child called Bazza. The pupils pinched any language or ideas they liked before beginning the process of building their own Bazza. The room fizzed with ideas, some of which I might even add to my own writing!
The session ended with a bit of ‘freestyle storytelling’ where I created an alternative Bazza using some of the children’s ideas.
I had a great time with the Y6 pupils and I’d like to thank Mrs Pym for inviting me back.