A seriously busy term started with a visit to Unity Academy, Blackpool at the beginning of January and ended back at Unity just before Easter. Between those visits, I stopped off at just short of thirty schools as well as eight libraries. Visits to Bolton, Wigan, Redditch, Preston, Stockport and Stoke-on-Trent to name but a…
What a hectic term that was! Seventeen school visits and six library events were squeezed in, even taking in a virtual stop-off in Suffolk. National Storytelling Week and World Book Day (Month!!) always make this term one of the busiest, but after the Covid troubles of the last couple of years it was great to…
If I’m honest, I was worried that WBD 2021 might not be able to happen. Covid and repeated lockdowns had changed everything and rather than visiting schools I was busy creating virtual options to keep the book buzz alive. Well I need not have worried! Schools and youth groups adapted, evolved and completely embraced the…
National Storytelling Week 2021 evolved into a two-week storytelling extravaganza! All visits were virtual this year, because of Covid-19, but the storytelling action wasn’t affected. I spent time working with a range of ages, from Nursery to Year 8 in the UK and even overseas. Zooms with schools in Bedfordshire and Lancashire, plus an international…
It had been a year to the day since I last visited these schools, so I was excited about returning. The morning saw a trip to St John Southworth RC Primary, Nelson. I looked back over the last five years during the assembly, before introducing the children to Eric’s latest adventure. They heard about the…
This was my first visit to Brookfield Park and it was a morning to remember. I had a fantastic time! The visit kicked off with an author assembly in the hall. It was a joy to share my writing adventure with Year 2 – 6. They discovered the process involved in writing and editing the…
I visited Hawes Side and Lytham Hall Park to share Danger Zone with a combined audience of around 500 fantastic children. The children heard about the process of writing the books. They even got to see how Martin creates his mind-blowing illustrations. I couldn’t visit without putting on the storytelling waistcoat to share an Impossible Tale.…
Two school visits were squeezed in to one day. First stop was Moor Park Primary, Blackpool. It had been a year since my last visit so I had lots to tell the children. They discovered how Danger Zone was written and the illustrations were created. I even put on the storytelling waistcoat to perform one…
I had a fantastic time at Padiham Green. The morning kicked off with a KS2 author assembly. As it was my first visit, I just about managed to share the events of the last five years with the pupils. They heard about Eric’s adventures and even saw a performance of one of the Tales. It…
A busy term ended with two author assemblies. It was a joy to share Danger Zone with the pupils at both schools. They got to see the manuscripts from the different stages of the writing process and Martin’s beautiful illustrations. It would have been rude not to take along the storytelling waistcoat to perform one…