This was my final trip of the academic year to the east Lancashire area. I hadn’t visited Rosewood before, which made it that extra bit exciting. The school is two-form entry so the hall was really full when the pupils had taken their places. The subsequent assembly allowed me to promote reading for pleasure and explain…
St Francis’ Primary is a small, rural school in Goosnargh, near Preston. This was my first visit to the school so I kicked off proceedings with an author assembly. All of the children attended, from Foundation Stage to Year 6. It was an absolute joy to share my writing adventure as the children listened intently.…
It was great to spend three mornings at Carleton Green Primary, a school literally round the corner from my house! The Year 5/6 pupils were studying the Amazon rainforest so I used a jungle-themed adventure opener as a writing stimulus. The text included lots of setting description along with plenty of mystery and tension. I…
It had been over two years since my last visit to Staining CE so it was lovely to return. The morning started with a whole-school author assembly. The children discovered how the books are written and I received lots of shocked responses when I showed the pupils all six draft manuscripts. Martin provided a ‘virtual’…
It was lovely to spend three mornings at Briercliffe Primary, Burnley, during late April. Visit one kicked off with a KS2 author assembly where I explained the writing and illustrating process. The children listened so well as the multiple drafts of Danger Zone were displayed and I revealed how Martin draws Eric. The session finished…
It was 2016 when I last visited Medlar with Wesham Primary so I was very excited to return. The morning kicked off with an author assembly. I shared my writing adventure with the Y2 – Y6 pupils and they were an absolute joy. They listened intently as I explained how Eric’s latest story was created…
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at St John’s and as it was a first-time visit it proved to be extra special. The morning started with a writing workshop in Year 4. The pupils kicked off the session by discussing nasty characters in books they had read. They explained why the characters were nasty and how…
I spent two fantastic afternoons at Spring Hill. During the first visit, I worked with both classes of Year 5 pupils. We discussed lots of nasty characters the children had encountered in books before pulling apart a piece of my writing which featured a particularly nasty kid called Bazza. The children discussed lots of alternative…
Tuesday saw a visit to Singleton Primary to share Danger Zone with the KS2 pupils. It was an action-packed hour filled with secret sessions about the book, sneaky peeks at the illustrations during development and the storytelling waistcoat even made an appearance! A top visit. Thanks Mrs Millward for organising the session and the book…
I was excited to receive an invitation from Marsden Primary in Nelson to design then deliver a series of writing sessions with some of the Year 4 and 5 pupils. The six sessions covered lots of different aspects of story writing including characterisation, setting, creating action sequences and tension and forming endings. Over the six…